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Essential Elements Has To Be Met To Attract The Offence Under Section 306 Of IPC: High Court Of Chhattisgarh

Title: Shaila Singh vs. State of Chhattisgarh

Citation: CRMP No. 1441 of 2017

Decided on: 20 Oct 2023

Coram: Chief Justice Hon’ble Shri Ramesh Sinha

Introduction:

This petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing of the charge-sheet and FIR registered for the offence punishable under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code  in Crime No.126/2016, and quashing of the charge dated 18.09.2017

Facts:

Husband of the deceased, namely, Naresh Yadav who is a government teacher had introduced a government scheme relating to Prime Minister. The scheme introduced is Vikas Kaushal Scheme and the benefits under the aforesaid scheme, any institution works, then they will be able to get Rs. 10,000 per student on the condition that the student will firstly have to deposit Rs. 12,000.

petitioner provided about Rs. 10 Lakhs to the husband of the deceased for the aforesaid Kaushal Vikas Yojna with the help of Leela’s Foundation. , Naresh Yadav had dishonestly not returned the share of the money to the concerned institution including the institution of the petitioner, who has already spent about Rs. 10 Lakhs for the benefit of aforesaid scheme. 

husband of the deceased in whose account the Leela’s Foundation has deposited the huge money of the institutions but Naresh Yadav stated that he had not taken back the amount from the Leela’s Foundation even he has not returned the money to the investor including the present petitioner.

On the date of incident petitioner came to know that the wife of Naresh Yadav along with her three children had consumed some poisonous substance i.e. Harpic and written a suicide note. children survived while the wife of Naresh Yadav expired, hence the prosecutors has filed charge sheet against the petitioner for an offence under section 306 of the IPC.

The learned trial Court, vide order dated 18.09.2017, without there being any ingredients against the present petitioner, has framed charges under Section 306 of the IPC read with Section 107 of the IPC against the petitioner. petitioner has also filed an application under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act against the husband of the deceased which indicates that the husband of the deceased, namely, Naresh Yadav had taken money from the petitioner.

Court’s Analysis and Judgment:

The petitioner submits that neither in the dying declaration nor in the F.I.R. there is any material indicating that the petitioner has committed the crime of abetment. It is further submitted that there is no mens rea on the part of the petitioner to commit the offence.

Its argued that suicide was not the last option left, The present petitioner, who allegedly made a demand from the husband of the deceased to repay the loan amount, the deceased never made any complaint to the police authorities nor moved before any higher officials of the Police Department. From the respondent’s side it is submitted that petitioner has harassed and abbeted the wife, which led to the her committing the suicide.                                                                                                                      

Hon’ble court decided that he necessary ingredients to atteact the offcnce under section 306 are not met in the present case, hence the court held that the charges made by trail court on petitioner are not sustainable.

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Written By: Sushant Kumar Sharma

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Mens rea and Intention are two crucial elements to invoke the provision of Section 306 of IPC(abetment of suicide): Gujarat High Court quashes charges against the applicants

Ashwinbhai Mansukhbhai vs State Of Gujarat

Bench: Honourable Justice Ilesh J. Vora

R/CRIMINALMISC.APPLICATION NO. 2749of 2021

JUDGMENT DATED: 24/05/2023

Facts

In the instant case, the deceased Ashok Chavda, employee of Rajkot Municipal Corporation committed suicide by hanging himself in Hotel Miracle at Ahmedabad. He was recruited as a labourer and work charge employee. On 10.11.2012, deceased along with other employees of the same cadre were transferred from Malaria branch to Drainage branch at Bedinaka, Rajkot. The applicant – Chirag Pandya being a City Engineer of RMC was in control and management of Drainage Department of Rajkot, whereas, the other applicants – Jitendrasinh Zala and Ashvin Kanjaria were serving on the post of Dy. Engineer and Asst. Electrical Engineer, RMC respectively. The deceased person was dissatisfied with his transfer posting and was irregular in attending the office. After resuming the duty at the drainage branch, he remained absent for 72 days.

He committed suicide on 4.7.2012. Before the incident of suicide, he wrote a letter addressed to Police Commissioner, Rajkot, alleging therein that the applicants intentionally insulted and intimidated him in front of other employees with an intent to humiliate and harass him as he belongs to a scheduled caste

After the suicide, the father of the deceased lodged an FIR against the applicants to get them behind bars. In view of the registration of the offence, the applicants have approached this Court, seeking quashing of the FIR mainly on the ground that the applicants hold higher posts in the establishment of Rajkot Municipal Corporation and any act done in discharge of their legal duty without there being any intention on their part to abet the commission of suicide by class IV employee, no ingredients of Section 306 of Indian Penal Code are satisfied. Section 306 deals with abetment of suicide.

The advocate for the applicants contended that the plain reading of the FIR and the suicide notes cannot satisfy the ingredients required to convict a person on the basis of section 306.

The advocate for the respondent held that the allegations levelled in the FIR and facts disclosed in the suicide notes, constitute a cognizable offence and based on this, the FIR was registered and still investigation is not completed due to interim order passed by this Court. Thus, it was urged that at this stage, the criminal proceedings cannot be quashed when the allegations made in the FIR and suicide notes disclosed the commission of offence

Judgement

The Court after hearing the contentions of both the parties held that there is no allegation that the deceased was continuous harassed and insulted deliberately without justifiable cause or reason. A simple act of issuing notice or memo for the irregular attendance of the deceased, for which he was otherwise duty bound to serve the department, would definitely not amount to abetment of things as defined under Section 107 of Indian Penal Code.

Thus, considering the aforesaid aspects as discussed hereinabove, the applicants had no intention to drive the deceased to commit suicide and they could not anticipate the same. To bring home the applicants for the charge under Section 306 of Indian Penal Code, the intention and mens rea are main ingredients of the offence of abetment and they are lacking in the present case.

For these reasons, the Court was confident that a case of abetment of suicide fails to sustain and hence quashed the charges against the applicants

JUDGEMENT REVIEWED BY AMIT ARAVIND

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