NEW DELHI: Emotionally distressing broken relationships do not automatically amount to abetment of suicide unless there is clear intention linked to the criminal offence, the Supreme Court has observed.“This is a case of a broken relationship, not criminal conduct,” a two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice Pankaj Mithal, and also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, said, in a 17-page judgment.The court set aside the conviction of one Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi by the Karnataka High Court for the offences of cheating and abetment of suicide under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 420 (cheating), 306 (abetment of suicide), and 376 (rape).Primarily, the trial court acquitted Sanadi of all the charges. But Karnataka govt had filed an appeal in the Karnataka High Court and challenged the lower court’s acquittal order. The HC convicted him of cheating and abetment of suicide, and sentenced him to five years imprisonment with Rs 25,000 as fine.Then Sanadi moved the apex court challenging the HC’s conviction order.According to the prosecution, the FIR was filed against Sanadi at the insistence of the victim’s mother. The victim, 21-year-old woman was in love with the accused for the past eight years and died by suicide in August, 2007, after he refused to keep his promise to marry.Writing a 17-page judgement, Justice Mithal analysed the two dying declarations of the woman and noted that neither was there any allegation of a physical relationship between the couple nor was there an intentional act leading to the death.The judgment stressed that broken relationships were emotionally distressing, but did not automatically amount to criminal offences.“Even in cases where the victim dies by suicide, which may be as a result of cruelty meted out to her, the courts have always held that discord and differences in domestic life are quite common in society and that the commission of such an offence largely depends upon the mental state of the victim,” said the top court.The court further said, “Surely, until and unless some guilty intention on the part of the accused is established, it is ordinarily not possible to convict him for an offence under Section 306 IPC.” The judgment said there was no evidence to suggest that the man instigated or provoked the woman to die by suicide.
Source link
