Eve-Teasing On Routine Basis: Madhya Pradesh High Court Prima Facie Finds Elements Of Abetment Of Suicide; Denies Bail

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has denied bail to a man accused of abetment to suicide of a minor girl after observing that he instilled a feeling of helplessness within the girl by constant harassment and made her movement difficult, thereby leading her to commit suicide.

Justice Shailendra Shukla observed thus:

"Thus, one can see the constant harassment on the part of the applicant of a minor girl on routine basis was likely to instill a sense of helplessness and frustration on the part of deceased and such harassment made even her daily movement difficult leading her to commit suicide by hanging. Eve-teasing on the part of applicant continued unabated leaving no option to the prosecutrix but to end her life. Such harassment was not a stray incident but was a feature in- continum."

The bail plea was moved by a man accused in a case involving Section 305 IPC along with Section 7 and 8 of the POCSO Act.

It was the case of the prosecution that the minor girl was being harassed by the accused, that he would kidnap her and was pestering her for marriage. Thus, due to such threat and harassment, she committed suicide by hanging.

On the other hand, it was the case of the accused that the aforesaid act does not involve ingredients of abetment as contained under Section 107 of IPC and therefore, he cannot be held liable to abetment of suicide of the minor girl.

Therefore, the question before the Bench was whether harassment in itself amounts to abetment of suicide or not?

Noting that the deceased girl used to narrate the harassing incidents to her family members, the Court observed thus:

"Such harassment had become an almost daily feature on the part of applicant and even when the deceased would go to water-tank to fetch water, applicant harassed her."

Observing that there was evidence of continuous harassment to the deceased on the part of the accused, the Court while relying on the relevant judgements on the subject, held that harassment in the case was "not a stray incident but was a feature in- continum."

"Thus, prima-facie, the elements of abetment of suicide are found to be existing in this case," the Court observed.

Accordingly, it dismissed the petition while denying bail to the accused applicant.

Title: Pawan v. State of Madhya Pradesh

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