The continuous maltreatment and harassment of a married woman, leading to her suicide, constitutes abetment of suicide under Section 306 of IPC. The evidence of interested witnesses should be scrutinized with care but can be relied upon if found to be trustworthy and credible.

1. On 26.4.2018, when the case was called. It appears that none had appeared for the appellant and accordingly, this Court appointed Ms. Manjula Mukati as counsel for the appellant/amicus curiae. However, when the case was called for hearing on 2.8.2018, neither any counsel for the appellant nor even the amicus curiae appeared for the appellant. The appellant was granted bail by this Court by order dated 2.12.1999 and it appears that after obtaining the bail from this Court, the appellant is not interested in arguing the matter. Under these circumstances, this Court was left with no other option but to peruse the record on its own and to decide this appeal after hearing the Public Prosecutor. Accordingly, a detailed order in this regard was passed on 2.8.2018 and the case was reserved for judgment in the light of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of Surya Baksh Singh Vs. State of Utter Pradesh, reported in (2014) 14 SCC 222.

2. This Criminal Appeal under Section 374 of Cr.P.C. has been filed against the judgment dated 13.5.1999 passed by Additional Sessions Judge, Jaora, District Ratlam in S.T.No.15/1997, by which the appellant has been convicted under Sections 306 and 498A of IPC and has been sentenced to undergo the rigorous imprisonment of 5 years and a fine of Rs.1000/- and rigorous imprisonment of 2 years and a fine of Rs.500/-, with default imprisonment.

3. The necessary facts for the disposal of the present appeal in short are that the present appellant is the husband of the deceased Mumtaz Bee and the marriage had taken place about 10 years prior to the date of incident. It is alleged that immediately after the marriage, the appellant as well as the co-accused Goremiyan, Chhoti Bee and Jakiya alias Kali, who were the father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law of the deceased respectively, started treating the deceased with cruelty and were harassing her. The appellant used to beat the deceased under the influence of liquor and was asking her to bring money from her parent’s home for starting the business. On 23.4.1991, the accused persons including the appellant ousted the deceased after beating her, as a result of which she went to her parental home at Mahidpur City and lodged a report against the accused persons and on her report, Crime No.0/91 for offence under Section 498-A of IPC was registered and the FIR was sent to Police Station Jaora City where the Crime No.130/91 was registered and after completing the investigation, the police filed the charge sheet against the appellant and the other co-accused persons and a Criminal Case No.468/93 was registered. Thereafter, on 9.1.1992 the appellant went to the parental home of the deceased and tendered his unconditional apology and also assured the security of the deceased in future and also executed an agreement on a stamp paper of Rs.5/- in front of the Panchas and thereafter, the appellant brought the deceased to her matrimonial house. However, even thereafter the behaviour of the appellant as well as other co-accused persons did not improve and consequently the deceased Mumtaz Bee committed suicide on 16.10.1996 by ablazing herself after pouring kerosene oil. A merg No.17/1996 was registered and the then SDO(P) Jaora started merg enquiry. He prepared dead body panchnama Ex.P/1, spot map Ex.P/2 and the articles from the place of incident were seized vide seizure memo Ex.P/3, the photographs of the spot were taken, which are Ex.P/5 to Ex.P/18. An application for conducting the postmortem of the dead body of the deceased was made which is Ex.P/7. The statements of the witnesses were recorded and after recording the statements of the witnesses, the police came to the conclusion that the offence under Sections 498-A and 306 of IPC have been committed and, accordingly, on 17.10.1996 the FIR Ex.P/10 was registered against the appellant and three other co-accused persons. The appellant and three other co-accused persons were arrested on 18.10.19