Allegations In FIR Can’t Be Said To Have Instigated Suicide: Madhya Pradesh High Court Quashes Case Filed After Suicide Of Rape Accused

Observing that the allegations levelled in the FIR against the rape accused cannot be considered as instigation for his act of suicide, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has quashed an abetment to suicide case against a 24-year-old Shubham alias Tejas Gupta.

“In the present case, even if the allegations as contained in the FIR and statements of the witnesses are taken as it is, even then it cannot be said that petitioner has instigated the deceased to commit suicide. At the most, there may be an act of the petitioner of getting the FIR registered against the deceased, but that does not mean that petitioner has instigated the deceased to commit suicide,”said Justice Deepak Kumar Agarwal in the ruling.

The court was hearing a petition seeking quashing of the abetment to suicide case filed against the several accused persons after the death of the rape accused. 

It was prosecution’s case that after a case was lodged against the deceased Rupesh Gupta under Section 376(2) (n), 384 of IPC, Sections 3,4 of POCSO Act and 67-A of IT Act, he had committed suicide.

As Section 306 of IPC makes abetment of commission of suicide punishable, therefore, for making a person liable for an offence punishable under the provisions, it is a duty of the prosecution to establish that such person has abetted the commission of suicide and for the purpose of determining the act of the accused, said the court.

“It is necessary to prove that the said accused has instigated the person to commit suicide or must have engaged with one or more other persons in any conspiracy for seeing that the deceased commits suicide or he must intentionally act by any act or illegal omission, of the commission of suicide by the deceased,” it added.

The court noted that a person can be said to have instigated another person, when he actively suggests or stimulates him by means of language, direct or indirect. Instigate means to goad or urge forward or to provoke, incite, urge or encourage to do an act, it added.

"Considering the totality of the facts & circumstances of the case, this court is of the considered opinion that prima facie there is no material to show that petitioner in any manner have abetted the deceased to commit suicide," it said, while quashing the FIR.

Case Title: Shubham @ Tejas Gupta v. State of MP & Ors

Case Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (MP) 72