Brief Facts
- Complainant (Respondent No. 3) is the wife of deceased Ashok Kumar who committed suicide. As per the version of the Complainant she took a loan of Rs. 60,000/- from the Appellant accused. On 15.06.2017, accused made to the shop of Complainant and abused, assaulted and threated the deceased due to non-payment of loan amount. On 30.06.2017 the deceased wrote the suicide note and thereafter committed suicide on 04.07.2017. Complainant alleges that the suicide was the result of instigation and abetment made by the Appellant accused.
- High Court rejected the prayer of the Appellant to quash the proceedings and resultantly the present petition was filed.
Issues
- Whether the appellants instigated the deceased to commit suicide?
Held
- The Supreme Court concluded that the acts of the accused did not amount to instigation under Section 306 of IPC. Therefore, the Court allowed the appeal and quashed the summoning order and observed that the continuation of the prosecution will be nothing but an abuse of the process of law.
- In the present case, taking the complaint of the third respondent and the contents of the suicide note as correct, it is impossible to conclude that the appellants instigated the deceased to commit suicide by demanding the payment of the amount borrowed by the third respondent from her husband by using abusive language and by assaulting him by a belt for that purpose. The said incident allegedly happened more than two weeks before the date of suicide. There is no allegation that any act was done by the appellants in the close proximity to the date of suicide. By no stretch of the imagination, the alleged acts of the appellants can amount to instigation to commit suicide. The deceased has blamed the third respondent for landing in trouble due to her bad habits.
Relevant Paras
- 10, 11, 12