The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for the prosecution to establish a clear mens rea and active act to push the deceased into a position to commit suicide in cases of abetment under section 306 of IPC.

ORDER :

This petition has been preferred by the applicants under section 482 of Cr.P.C. for quashing of FIR registered as Crime No. 14/2022 at Police Station Mow, Distt. Bhind for the offence under section 306/34 of IPC against the applicants.

2. As per prosecution case, on 2-10-2021 at 5:30 p.m. deceased Santosh aged about 30 years resident of village Baroli District Bhind was admitted in ICU Department of J.A. Hospital Gwalior and during treatment he died. Deceased consumed poisonous substance. On the information, merg was recorded at Police Station Kampoo District Gwalior. Dead body panchnama was prepared. Dead body was sent for post-mortem. As per post-mortem report, deceased died due cardio respiratory failure as a result of poisoning. During Merg inquiry, statements of family members of the deceased were recorded in which they alleged that on 24-9-2021 due to throwing of garbage, a dispute arose between the applicants and the deceased. The matter was reported to the police. Thereafter on 1-10-2021 present applicants along with co-accused persons came to their house and pressurize them to compromise while threatening that otherwise they will be forced to leave the village. Thereafter they were regularly doing cruelty with the deceased as a result of which deceased consumed poison and committed suicide.

3. Learned counsel for the applicants contended that prima facie on the facts and evidence as adduced by the prosecution in the case, no offence under section 306 of the IPC is made out against the applicants/accused as there is no evidence on record to show that the petitioner in any manner instigated, aided or provoked the deceased to commit suicide. Learned counsel for the applicant has relied upon the judgments passed by the Apex Court in the case of Netai Dutta vs. State of West Bengal, (2005) 2 SCC 659 and Sanju @ Sanjay Singh Sengar vs. State of M. P., (2002) 5 SCC 371 and contended that the applicants have not committed any willful act or omission or intentionally aided or instigated the deceased in committing the act of suicide. There is no case that the applicants have played any part or any role in any conspiracy which ultimately instigated or resulted in the commission of suicide by deceased.

4. Learned counsel for the State has opposed the submission so advanced by the applicants by submitting that at this stage no interference is warranted.

5. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.

Section 306 of IPC reads as under :— “Section 306. If any person commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

6. The ‘abetment’ has been defined in section 107 of the IPC, which reads as under :—

“Section 107. A person abets the doing of a thing, who First — Instigates any person to do that thing; or Secondly — Engages with one or more other person or persons in any conspiracy for the doing of that thing, if an act or illegal omission takes place in pursuance of that conspiracy, and in order to the doing of that thing; or Thirdly — Intentionally aids, by any act or illegal omission, the doing of that thing. Whoever, either prior to or at the time of the commission of an act, does anything in order to facilitate the commission of that act, and thereby facilitates the commission thereof, is said to aid the doing of that act.”

7. As section 306 of IPC makes abetment of commission of suicide punishable, therefore, for making a person liable for an offence punishable under section 306 IPC, it is a duty of the prosecution to establish that such person has abetted the commission of suicide and for the purpose of determining the act of the accused, it is necessary to see that his act must fall in any of the three categories as enumerated under section 107 of the IPC and, therefore, it is necessary to prove that the said accused has instigated the person to commit suicide o