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Instigation or incitement on the part of the accused person was the gravamen of the offence of abetment to suicide but a mere allegation or accusation of harassment made by the deceased prior to his death, cannot be held as the fulcrum of an offence under Section 306 IPC.
Sitting Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Pankaj Mithal began his career in law in the 1980s and subsequently went on to become Chief Justice of High Courts of J&K and Ladakh and Rajasthan.
Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 — Ss. 11, 12(5) and 18 — Unilateral appointment of sole arbitrator/curating panel of arbitrators: Unilateral appointment
“Every case of suicide does not amount to abetment and therefore, the Court has to see whether the conduct of the accused was such that a normal person, not merely a hypersensitive one, would have been driven to suicide.”
Even after assuming, that such relationship existed between petitioner and his sister-in-law, or demeaning language in reference to the deceased, was exchanged via WhatsApp between them, these facts, stand alone, do not, prima facie, disclose the specific ingredients of cruelty or harassment related to dowry demand.
“A remark such as asking the deceased to not be alive if she cannot live without marrying her lover will also not gain the status of abetment. There needs to be a positive act that creates an environment where the deceased is pushed to an edge in order to sustain the charge of Section 306 IPC.”
“There must be a close proximity between the positive act of instigation by the accused person and the commission of suicide by the victim.”
“It is essential to establish that the death was a result of suicide and that the accused actively abetted its commission. This can involve instigating the victim or engaging in specific actions that facilitated the act. The prosecution must prove beyond doubt that the accused played a definitive role in the abetment. Without clear evidence of an active role in provoking or assisting the suicide, a conviction under Section 306 IPC cannot be sustained.”
“To convict a person for abetment of suicide under Section 306 IPC, there has to be a clear mens rea on the part of the accused to abet such a crime and it requires an active act or a direct act leading to the commission of suicide.
The family of four committed suicide near railway tracks, allegedly due to atrocious and forcible demand for money which they owed to co-accused.
At this stage, averments made in the petition that the allegations levelled against accused is false, cannot be looked into while exercising powers under Section 528 of the Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.
The Court opined that is important to acknowledge that individuals vary in their sensitivity and temperament. It is not solely the feelings of the deceased that would matter, but most importantly, the intention behind the act of the accused would also have to be discerned.
“If a person committing suicide is hypersensitive and the allegations attributed to the accused are otherwise not ordinarily expected to induce a similarly situated person to take the extreme step to commit suicide, it will be unsafe to hold the accused guilty of abetment of suicide.”
“The deceased was frustrated on account of work pressure and was feeling the pressure of working in two different districts.”
Supreme Court raised doubts that if prosecution version was to be believed, there had to be presence of syringe and needle or a container at the scene of occurrence.
Supreme Court commented that “the criminal justice system of ours can itself be a punishment” as happened in the instant matter which started in 1993 and came to an end in 2024, after 30 years of suffering.
Calcutta High Court noted that the victim was a minor on the date of the alleged suicide, which prima facie invoked Section 305 of the IPC.
Madhya Pradesh High Court quashed the FIR and consequential criminal proceedings arising thereafter.
In the case at hand, a man had shot himself dead following a monetary dispute with the 74-year-old Advocate’s sone and two others.
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