Mental trauma after break-up not a fit case for abetment of suicide: Mumbai court
To constitute abetment under Section 306 of the IPC, there should be active suggestion, instigation or encouragement on the part of the accused
While acquitting a woman accused of abetting her former boyfriend’s death, a court in Mumbai observed that suicide due to mental trauma after a break-up does not qualify for a case of abetment.
It is “morally” incorrect to change partners as per one’s whims and fancies, but there is no remedy under the penal law for the person facing rejection in a relationship, the court held.
Additional Sessions Judge NP Mehta made these observations on February 29 and acquitted Manisha Chudasama and her fiancée Rajesh Panwar who were accused of abetting the suicide of Nitin Keni. Keni was found hanging in his house on January 15, 2016, and was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead.
“Morally, it is incorrect to switch love partner at one’s whims and fancies, but if one sees from the provision of penal law, no remedy lies with the victim whose partner has switched his or her love relationship with other on her/his choice,” the judge observed.
The judge, in his order, said that to constitute abetment under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code there should be active suggestion, instigation or encouragement on the part of the accused to push the deceased to commit suicide. “A person gets emotionally broken if the partner to whom he loves breaks the relationship without any reason. If there are hard breaks in a love relationship and one partner commits suicide because of mental trauma would not bring his case under section 107 read with 306 of the IPC," the court added.
The prosecution had argued that Chudasama and Panwar had mentally tortured the victim driving him to suicide.
Keni was in a relationship with Chudasama, but she dumped him and got engaged to Panwar, they said.
The defence contended that Keni was stalking Chudasama and she had lodged a police complaint against him, but he persisted.
The court said that from the testimony of the prosecution, it appears that the deceased was "upset and mentally disturbed", and went into a depressive state of mind soon after he found out about Chudasama’s relationship with Panwar. Assuming Chudasama got engaged to Panwar after breaking up with Keni, the circumstance should not have caused him to take extreme steps, the court said.
(With agency inputs)