Mumbai, January 24: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has observed that mere taunting does not amount to cruelty while acquitting three persons from charges of harassing a woman and abetting her suicide. The court set aside the order passed by the Nandurbar sessions court in 2001 convicting the victim’s husband, mother-in-law and brother-in-law on charges of abetting her suicide and for harassment and cruelty.
The couple married in May 1993. Initially, everything was well between them. However, the prosecution claimed that the husband, his mother and brother started taunting the woman for not cooking properly, doing household work, taking too much time to cook and doing other work.
Here's What Judge Said
In April 1994, the woman allegedly killed herself by self-immolation. “In the considered opinion of this court, mere taunting would not amount to harassment or mental cruelty,” Justice Abhay Waghwase remarked. The prosecution also said that the accused asked the deceased to get Rs10,000 from her father.
The woman’s family claimed she died by suicide by self-immolation as she was fed up with the ill-treatment meted against her by her in-laws and husband. The accused, however, claimed it was an accident.
The bench noted that in the absence of any material to show that the accused persons set the victim on fire, it would be unjust to indict them and it would amount to drawing assumptions and presumptions.
No Evidence Of Abetment of Suicide
It also said that it has not come across any iota of evidence to show that the accused persons had abetted her suicide or had ill-treated her continuously and to such an extent that she was left with no alternative but to end her life.
The court said there was no evidence of instigation or inducement by the accused persons to the victim to commit suicide. “Simplicitor accusations of taunting and demanding money which was not followed by physical or mental cruelty, itself would not be sufficient to attribute abetment to commit suicide,” Justice Waghwase said.
The court in its order noted that almost all accusations levelled against the accused persons are that they taunted the victim for not preparing proper meals, not waking up early, not washing clothes and eating too much.
