Indian Penal Code, 1860
Section 306—Abetment to commit suicide—Proof—Abetment to commit suicide should involve positive act on the part of the accused to instigate or aid in committing suicide and there should be clear mens rea to commit the offence—Act complained of must be intended to push the deceased to commit suicide and there must be a proof of direct or indirect act/s of incitement to the commission of suicide—Court should look for cogent and convincing acts of incitement towards the commission of suicide—Mere allegations of harassment caused to deceased by the accused would not suffice unless such acts compel the person to commit suicide and such offending acts must be proximate to the time of occurrence—If the deceased happened to be hypersensitive and his action of committing suicide is not ordinarily expected to induce a similarly circumstanced person to commit suicide then it may not safe to hold the accused guilty of abetment of suicide—However if the accused by his acts and continuous course of conduct creates a situation leading the deceased to commit suicide, then case may be covered under Section 306 IPC—There should be evidences pertaining to the positive act on the part of the accused to instigate or aid to drive the deceased to commit suicide.
[Para 10]
Sections 306 & 506—Discharge of accused—Revision—Suicide note only reflects dissatisfaction of deceased due to relationship of her father with a lady (respondents)—Court at stage of consideration framing of the charges is required to sift and weigh the evidence but only for the limited purpose to find out whether or not a prima facie case against the accused has been made out—If the material collected during evidence discloses grave suspicion against the accused then the court has to frame charge and to proceed with the trial—Whether a prima facie is made out depends upon the facts of each case—Court is justified in discharging the accused if evidence/material collected during investigation gives rise to some suspicion but not grave suspicion against the accused—Court is not supposed to make a roving enquiry and weigh the evidence as if the court is conducting a trial—Court at stage of consideration of charge is not expected to go deep into the probative value of the material collected during investigation—Truth, veracity and effect of proposed evidence of the prosecution should not to be meticulously judged—Material collected during investigation arising out of present FIR if accepted as true even no offence is made out under Section 306/506 of IPC against the respondents—Impugned order reflects that trial court has considered the allegations and contents of suicide note and other material collected during the investigation and rightly discharged the respondents—Impugned order passed by the trial court is based on reasons and does not call for any interference—Petition dismissed. [Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, Section 397 read with Section 399]
[Paras 11 & 12]