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Justice V.M. Deshpande allowed a petition that challenged the judgment of the Trial Court. In the impugned judgment, the appellant had been convicted under Section 305 of the Penal Code as abettor of suicide.
In the present case, the appellant’s son had committed suicide, and had accused his father for the cause of his suicide. In the suicide note, the son said that he was committing suicide because his father consumed alcohol habitually. The prosecution submitted to the Court that the conduct and behavior of the father caused great embarrassment for the victim. Hence the son committed suicide. The Trial Court after hearing the matter convicted the appellant. Aggrieved by the conviction, the appellant filed an instant appeal.
During the proceeding, the HC referred to Section 107 while referring to the Section 305 and 306. The HC also said that when it came to suicide, the law was very clear. The numerous decisions by Supreme Court also acted as well defined precedents. The Court also identified that Section 305 of the IPC was for punishing the accused who had abetted the suicide of an insane or a child. Section 306 however punished the accused for abetting any other person to commit suicide. The criteria for deciding the fact however were similar. The HC, in this matter also observed, “The admitted position also speaks that the mother of the deceased was a psychic patient having nothing to do with the drinking of the appellant. Therefore, he used to be always under depressing conditions. Different persons may react differently to the same situation. Therefore, merely because the deceased by writing a note mentioning about the drinking habit of his father and committed suicide, in my view, it cannot be treated as an abetment, especially when the prosecution evidence falls short to show that there used to be ill-treatment at the hands of the appellant under the influence of liquor to the deceased so as to drive the deceased to take the extreme step of his life.”
The Court said that the boy in his suicide note had written that the cause of his suicide was that his father was a drunkard. In this case, “Merely drinking can never be an abetment for a person to commit suicide.” The Court went on to acquit the appellant from the conviction placed upon him under Section 305 of the Penal Code. The judgment of the Trial Court was also discarded.
Ramrao Kisan Rathod v. State of Maharashtra, Crl. Appeal No. 391 of 2015
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