Karnataka High Court Quashes Abetment To Suicide Charge Levelled Against Friend Of Dead Woman's Husband

The Karnataka High Court recently quashed abetment to suicide charges levelled against a man who was alleged to have caused the suicide of his friend's wife by making allegations on her character.

A single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna said none of the ingredients necessary to prove an offence punishable under Section 306 of IPC are made out. It observed,

"For an offence to become punishable under Section 306 of IPC, the ingredients as obtaining under Section 107 of IPC is imperative. Section 107 of IPC deals with abatement. Any of the ingredients that are of Section 107 of IPC being present in a crime, then, it would become a matter of trial for the offence punishable under Section 306 of IPC."

As per deceased's mother, her son-in-law, i.e. accused No.1 and his friend, i.e. the petitioner, are responsible for her daughter's death.

Petitioner however argued that the complaint and the summary of charge-sheet would not indicate any ingredients of the offence punishable under Sections 306 of the IPC.

The prosecution opposed the plea saying the offence alleged is grave as it is the one punishable under Sections 306 of IPC and therefore, the petitioner has to come out clean in the trial.

At the outset, the bench held that offence under Section 498(A) IPC cannot be laid against the petitioner who is not a member of the family but only a friend of the accused No.1. It then referred to the complaint and the chargsheet noted that any of the ingredients that is necessary to prove an offence punishable under Section 306 of IPC is not made out.

Reliance was upon Kanchan Sharma v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2021) which held that to proceed against any person for the offence under Section 306 IPC it requires an active act or direct act which led the deceased to commit suicide, seeing no option and that act must have been intended to push the deceased into such a position that he committed suicide.

Reference was also made to S.S. Chheena v. Vijay Kumar Mahajan (2010) wherein it was held that Abetment involves a mental process of instigating a person or intentionally aiding a person in doing of a thing. Without a positive act on the part of the accused to instigate or aid in committing suicide, conviction cannot be sustained.

In the facts and circumstances of the case the Court noted that "Abetment as is necessary for an offence under Section 306 of IPC is not present in the case at hand. Therefore, the trial, if permitted to be continued, it would definitely not end in conviction of the petitioner due to the lack of ingredients.”

Accordingly it allowed the petition.

Case Title: Thimmaraju And State of Karnataka

Case No: CRIMINAL PETITION NO. 566 OF 2020

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Kar) 255

Date of Order: 13-06-2023

Appearance: Advocate Raghavendra Gowda K for petitioner

HCGP K.P.Yashoda for Respondent.

Click Here To Read/Download Order