Just because the boy did not like the girl and she resorted to 'unfair' means to speak to him, it cannot amount to abetting suicide, held the Bombay High Court, recently, while quashing an FIR lodged against a girl.
A bench of Justices Tanaji Nalawade and Mukund Sewlikar was seized with a plea filed by a 23-year-old girl, a resident of Beed, seeking to quash an FIR lodged against her for abetting the suicide of her ex-boyfriend. She was booked for continuously harassing and torturing the boy for three years.
The bench, however, said her conduct did not instigate the boy to commit suicide. Instead, while quashing the FIR, it noted that the boy disliked her because she went on outings with several boys.
According to the prosecution, the deceased Ramesh (changed name), a master's in computer science student, committed suicide by hanging himself in his hostel room in September 2017.
The suicide note, recovered from the room, named the girl for forcing him to end his life. The note stated that the deceased had stopped talking to her and responding to her messages but she did not back out.
She continued to send numerous messages on his cellphone through all the social media platforms, such as WhatsApp and Facebook, the prosecution claimed. It further highlighted the fact that the accused girl was illegally using her friend's account to chat with the deceased on Facebook.
In his note, Ramesh further stated that the girl had asked her other male friends to threaten him. A few of them even assaulted him, after which he committed suicide for not being able to handle the mental torture meted out to him. The prosecution, accordingly argued that the accused girl tortured Ramesh beyond any limits and made his life miserable due to which he ended his life.
Having considered the facts of the case and the contents of the suicide note, the judges said that the same do not constitute an offence of abetting someone's suicide.
"It is evident that the contents of the note do not even remotely indicate that the accused girl had insigated Ramesh to commit suicide or had intentionally aided the commission of his suicide. The un-controverted allegations do not show that she did any thing that would amount to instigation to suicide or which would indicate that she had intentionally aided the commission of his suicide," the bench said.
The judges further said that the contents of the suicide note do not indicate that she created any circumstances that left Ramesh with no other alternative than to commit suicide. "Just because Ramesh did not want to speak to the accused girl and, she by adopting unfair means was trying to speak to him, does not suggest that she had created such circumstances that he
was left with no alternative than to commit suicide," the judges held.
"On the contrary, the contents of the suicide note as narrated in the FIR indicate that the deceased did not like the petitioner to be friendly with other boys. Thus, we feel that the FIR must be quashed," the judges added.
