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The Supreme Court on November 29, 2024, said a refusal to marriage or a broken relationship cannot be treated as a case of instigating, inciting, or provoking the deceased to commit suicide.

A bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ujjal Bhuyan set aside the Karnataka High Court's order which reversed the trial court's judgment of acquittal of appellant Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi in a case of abetment of suicide of a 21-year-old Hindu girl. The accused was charged under Sections 417, 376, and 306 of the IPC.

"We find that the accused-appellant had simply refused to marry the deceased and thus, even assuming there was love between the parties, it is only a case of broken relationship which by itself would not amount to abetment to suicide. The accused-appellant had not provoked the deceased in any manner to kill herself; rather the deceased herself carried poison in a bottle from her village while going to Kakati, Karnataka with a predetermined mind to positively get an affirmation from the accused-appellant to marry her, failing which she would commit suicide," the bench said.

Therefore, in such a situation simply because the accused-appellant refused to marry her, would not be a case of instigating, inciting, or provoking the deceased to commit suicide, the bench added.

The bench pointed out the top court has repeatedly observed that abetment involves a mental process of instigating a person or intentionally aiding a person in doing a particular thing and without the positive act on the part of the accused there would be no instigation.

It has also been observed that to convict a person for abetment of suicide under Section 306 IPC, there has to be a clear mens rea on the part of the accused to abet such a crime and it requires an active act or a direct act leading to the commission of suicide, the court said.

"Even in cases where the victim commits suicide, which may be as a result of cruelty meted out to her, the courts have always held that discord and differences in domestic life are quite common in society and that the commission of such an offence largely depends upon the mental state of the victim. Surely, until and unless some guilty intention on the part of the accused is established, it is ordinarily not possible to convict him for an offence under Section 306 IPC," the bench stated.

It was alleged that the accused-appellant had promised to marry the deceased before the jamaat (panchayath) but four months prior to the incident, he had left the village and started living at Kakati, Karnataka.

The deceased came to Kakati on the evening of August 18, 2007 when the accused-appellant clearly refused to marry her. The deceased spent the whole night at the bus stand at Kakati and in the morning consumed poison, resulting in her death at the hospital.

Before her death, the girl recorded her dying declaration before a police sub-inspector and taluka executive magistrate on August 19, 2007.

The mother of the deceased lodged an FIR on August 20, 2007, under Section 306 read with Section 34 IPC at the Police Station, Kakati, Circle Belgaum Rural District, Karnataka against the accused-appellant and his uncle, alleging that the accused-appellant had deceived her daughter by promising to marry her and then refusing it, which led to the commission of suicide by her in frustration.

Additional Sessions Judge, Belgaum, by his 2010 judgment acquitted the accused-appellant of all the charges as there was no allegation in the dying declaration that the accused-appellant ever had any sexual intercourse with the deceased on the pretext of promise to marry her or ever had any physical relationship with her. The girl's only allegation was that she consumed poison as he refused to marry her. There was no allegation that the accused appellant instigated her to consume poison or to commit suicide.

On appeal by the State of Karnataka, the High Court convicted the accused-appellant under Sections 417 and 306 IPC.

Considering the matter, the Supreme Court noted that the dying declaration of the deceased revealed that there was no allegation of any physical relationship between the accused appellant and the deceased or that the accused-appellant had ever entered into any physical relationship or had sexual intercourse with the deceased under the pretext of marriage.

The dying declaration indicates that it was the deceased who was in love with the accused-appellant and wanted to marry him. When the accused-appellant had left the village, it was the deceased who made a search about him and came to know that he was residing in Kakati. She herself traced him out at Kakati and went after him. She called him and when they met, he refused to marry her and thus, as her sentiments were hurt, she consumed poison leading to her death, the court recorded.

"There is no allegation by her that the accused-appellant had instigated her to consume poison or to commit suicide. No other evidence in this regard has been adduced. Even the mother of the deceased (PW-1) in her statement revealed that it was the deceased who was in love with the accused appellant and that she wanted her mother to convince him to marry her. The said witness though may have stated that the deceased entered into physical relationship with her daughter but the same otherwise does not stand proved or corroborated, not even by the dying declarations," the bench noted.

The court also said there was an allegation but no evidence to prove that the accused-appellant was also in love with the deceased or that he was in touch with her in any manner. The allegation that both of them were talking to each other on phone is without any substance as no evidence was produced in the form of call records of either of them to establish that the accused-appellant used to call the deceased and talk to her and to establish that he was also in love with her, the bench pointed out. 

"There is no evidence to even establish that the accused-appellant entered into any physical relationship with the deceased on the pretext of marrying her. So, the evidence fails to prove any physical relationship between the two, promise to marry on the part of the accused-appellant and that he was instrumental in instigating the deceased to consume poison or to commit suicide," the bench said.

Citing Prabhu vs State represented by Inspector of Police & Anr (2024), the bench pointed out the top court had observed that broken relationships and heartbreaks are part of everyday life and that breaking-up of the relationship would not constitute any instigation or abetment of suicide inasmuch as in order to constitute ‘Instigation’ it must be shown that the accused had by his acts and omissions or by continued course of conduct created such circumstances that the deceased was left with no other option except to commit suicide.

"There is no direct evidence adduced by the prosecution to prove that the accused-appellant has in any way instigated or provoked the deceased to commit suicide. The accused appellant on asking of the deceased had simply refused to marry her which is not a positive act on his part with any intention to abet the crime of suicide," the bench said.

The court finally said that even assuming, though there was no evidence that the accused-appellant promised to marry the deceased, that there was such a promise, it was again a simple case of a broken relationship for which there was a different cause of action, but not prosecution or conviction for an offence under Section 306, especially in the facts and circumstances.

The court, therefore, held that the judgment and order of the High Court of December 15, 2011 could not be sustained in law and the accused-appellant stood acquitted as was done by the trial court.

Case Title: Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi Vs State of Karnataka Through SHO Kakati Police