The Supreme Court has quashed criminal proceedings against six persons accused of abetting the suicide of a woman after her lover allegedly refused to marry her, holding that a refusal to marry following a consensual relationship cannot, by itself, be treated as abetment to suicide.
The case arose from the suicide of a woman who had been living with the first appellant, her alleged lover, for around three months.
The Supreme Court directed that the accused, if in custody, be released forthwith unless required in any other case. A Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. The victim’s siblings alleged that the first appellant refused to marry her, following which she took the extreme step. The FIR was registered on the basis of a statement given by the sister of the woman who committed suicide. In its order, the Justice Pardiwala-led Bench recorded that the victim had called her eldest sister before taking the extreme step and informed her that the first appellant had refused to marry her. “We are unable to find any instigation by the accused/appellants to drive the victim to death by suicide. It added that the refusal to marry was neither intended to drive the woman to suicide nor could the accused be attributed with knowledge that she would take her life following the refusal. It further ordered that their bail bonds would stand cancelled if they were already on bail.
The victim had been living with the first appellant at his house, and their relationship was consensual, according to the prosecution. However, the Supreme Court said there was no material to establish that the accused had instigated the victim to commit suicide. It was neither intended nor can it be said to be abetment,” the order said. “The refusal to marry was not with an intention to drive the woman to death by suicide, nor can knowledge be attributed to the accused that on such refusal, she would commit suicide,” the Supreme Court said.
Vinod Chandran set aside the proceedings pending before the II Additional Senior Civil Judge-cum-Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Medchal-Malkajgiri District in Telangana’s Kushaiguda, observing that there was no material to establish instigation by the accused to drive the woman to suicide.
