To establish an offence under Section 306 IPC, the prosecution must prove active instigation by the accused; mere allegations of infidelity without direct evidence of provocation or intent are insufficient for conviction.

JUDGMENT :

Sanjay S. Agrawal, J.

1. This appeal has been preferred by the appellant/State under Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, questioning the legality and propriety of the judgment dated 14.08.2019, passed by the Sessions Judge, Durg, District Durg (CG) in Sessions Trial No.150/2018, whereby, the respondent- Nivedita Dalal, has been acquitted with regard to the offence punishable under Section 306 of IPC.

2. Briefly stated the facts of the case are that the deceased, namely, Devashish Dalal, who was the husband of the respondent- Nivedita Dalal, has committed suicide by hanging himself on 08.06.2017 on account of physical and mental torture given by her. It is the allegation of the prosecution that the respondent has illicit relations with someone else and always used to talk late night and, used to fight with her husband whenever he objected to it. It is alleged further that on account of the instigation made by the respondent, the deceased has taken an extreme step on the said fateful day by hanging himself, owing to which, he was admitted into Sector-9, Hospital at Bhilai, where he was declared brought dead. A merg intimation (Ex.P-3) was, therefore, lodged by one Bhagwan Singh, an employee of the said Hospital and, during the course of enquiry, it was revealed that the deceased was in depression because of physical and mental torture given by his wife, who instigated him to take such an extreme step for committing suicide and, after Inquest (Ex.P-10) being done, the dead body of the deceased was sent for autopsy and according to the postmortem report (Ex.P-11), the cause of death was opined to be asphyxia, occurred due to hanging and was, thus, held to be suicidal in nature and, based upon the said enquiry, an FIR (Ex.P-20) was registered against the respondent on 04.08.2017 in connection with Crime No.170/2017 for the offence punishable under Section 306 of IPC. After completion of the usual investigation, the charge-sheet was submitted before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Durg, who in turn, has committed the matter before the learned Sessions Judge, Durg and, based upon the materials available on record, she was charge-sheeted on 19.11.2018 for the offence punishable under Section 306 of IPC and the charge, so framed, was denied by her and claimed to be tried.

3. The trial Court, after considering the evidence led by the prosecution, observed that none of the witnesses have stated that the respondent has made any cruelty upon her husband or has instigated him for taking such an extreme step for committing suicide and, therefore, in absence of the ingredients provided under Section 107 of IPC, the respondent cannot be held guilty for the commission of the alleged crime and, accordingly, she has been acquitted by the impugned judgment and, being aggrieved, the instant appeal has been preferred.

4. Mr. Ratan Pusty, learned counsel appearing for the appellant/State submits that the findings recorded by the trial Court holding that the respondent has neither harassed or maltreated her husband or has instigated him for taking such an extreme step for committing suicide, is apparently contrary to the materials available on record, as the extra- marital relation of her with someone else was of such a degree, which has disturbed the mental balance of her husband, compelling him to commit suicide, but the trial Court has, failed to consider the same in its proper perspective and, thereby, erred in acquitting the respondent from the commission of the alleged crime.

5. On the other hand, Ms. Kaushaki Kumari, learned counsel appearing for the respondent, while