The Bombay High Court recently quashed a first information report (FIR) registered against a woman booked for abetment of suicide of her lover who took the extreme step, after the accused woman married another person [Monika Jadhav vs State of Maharashtra].
A division bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and Govind Sanap noted from the first information report (FIR) that the deceased boyfriend, who was already married to another woman, was in an extra-marital relationship with the applicant-woman.
She insisted that he marry her but he refused which compelled her to marry another man.
The boyfriend then committed suicide.
“We find that this is a case wherein deceased decided to end his life on account of the blunder that he committed in his life,” Justice Shukre said in his order passed on June 6.
The bench noted that the applicant had decided to wriggle herself out of the extra-marital affair after the deceased refused to marry her.
“This act on the part of the applicant gave a severe blow to deceased and it is seen that he lost his mental balance. It is also seen that he was already under great mental stress due to marital dispute with his wife i.e. accused No.3 in the case,” the judges noted.
From the FIR, the bench noted that the act of the applicant performing marriage with another man couldn’t be tolerated by the deceased and it served as a final nail in his mental worries.
But the same will not amount to abetment of suicide on the part of the woman, the Court made it clear.
“Considering these facts, we find that no blame whatsoever could be placed upon the shoulders of this applicant and in any case, the act of marrying another man by this applicant at a time when she had extra marital affair with the deceased could not be considered, by no stretch of imagination, to be something like abetting his suicide,” the bench held.
Referring to the definition of ‘abetment’ under Section 107 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the bench opined that in the instant case there was no conspiracy or any active or intentional aiding which prompted the man to commit suicide.
“In this case, even if all the allegations made against the applicant are accepted as they are, we do not find that any offence of abetment of suicide is disclosed at least against this applicant. After all, the only fault on the part of this applicant was of engaging herself in an affair with a married person like deceased and further fault on her part was of she marrying another man while her affair with deceased, a married man, was on and that too when he did not agree to her suggestion to perform marriage with her. We, therefore, find that this is a fit case for making of interference in the investigation or otherwise there would be a miscarriage of justice,” the judges concluded.
In view of this conclusion, the bench quashed the FIR lodged against the applicant-woman by Buldhana District City Police.
Additional Public Prosecutor SS Doiphode appeared for the state.
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