Mumbai court grants bail to serving police officer, family in abetment to suicide case

A person cannot be presumed to be guilty of abetment to suicide merely because he or she has been named in a suicide note, the court said.

A person cannot be presumed to be guilty of abetment to suicide merely because he or she has been named in a suicide note, the Mumbai sessions court observed while granting anticipatory bail to a serving police officer and his family members booked for abetting the suicide of a woman.

Merely because a person has been named in a suicide note, we are not to immediately jump to the conclusion, the court said. (Representational Image)

Damodhar Chaudhari and his family have been booked by Navghar police station.

According to police, Mulund resident Ria Palande hanged herself in her house. She purportedly wrote a suicide note on the wall and also left a note in her shop at Mulund, naming Chaudhari’s family members for harassment.

Palende’s son, Kumar, lodged a complaint against the police officer and his family.

In May 2015, Ria had approached Bharti with an offer to sell a flat in Bandra. Relying on that Bharti had paid Rs 10 lakhs to Ria and later paid the entire amount (Rs 50 lakhs) in instalment, Damodhar’s lawyer Anjali Awasthi said. However, Ria failed to execute the necessary agreement and Bharti demanded a refund.

The police officer’s lawyer pleaded that none of Damodhar family’s members instigated or created a situation leaving Ria Palande no option to commit suicide and therefore they could not have been booked for abetting the suicide.

“Merely because a person has been named in a suicide note, we are not to immediately jump to the conclusion that he/she is an offender under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC. The contents of the suicide note and other circumstances have to be examined to find out whether it is abetment within the meaning of Section 306 IPC read with Section 107 (abetment to any crime) IPC. There may be a case wherein suicide note victim had named a person, who is responsible for his/her committing suicide, but on proper analysis, of Section 306 IPC may not be attracted to him,” said the sessions court.