HC quashes case against woman for man’s death

AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court quashed an FIR filed against a 24-year-old female student for abetting the suicide of a 26-year-old man in December 2017.
The woman had approached the high court seeking to quash the FIR registered against her by Begumpura police under sections 306, 506 and 34 of the IPC following a complaint from the deceased’s younger brother.The deceased, Ganesh, a student who pursued masters in computer scinece, and his younger brother Umesh Kopurwad were putting up at the hostel on the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University campus.
The bench, comprising Justices T V Nalawade and M G Sewlikar, observed, “from the bare reading of the FIR, in which the contents of the suicide note are incorporated, it is evident that the contents do not even remotely indicate that the applicant had instigated the deceased to commit suicide or had intentionally aided the commission of the suicide by the deceased. ’’
On September 12, 2017, when Umesh came back to the room of his hostel around 1.10pm, he found that it was locked from inside. When he saw through the slit of the door, he found Ganesh hanging from the ceiling of the room. They informed police, who found a suicide mentioning that the woman was moving around with other boys.
The bench observed that the “contents do not indicate that the petitioner created such circumstances that the deceased was left with no alternative than to commit suicide’’. On the contrary, the bench remarked “the contents of the suicide note, as narrated in the FIR, indicate that the deceased did not like the petitioner to be friendly with other boys.” While referring to a line in the suicide note that read ‘she continued going to movies with the boys and moving around with them on the bike’, the court observed, “this indicates that the deceased did not like the petitioner to be friendly with other boys.’’
Thus, the bench said, “it cannot be said that the petitioner had an intention to bring about the suicide of the deceased or that she had created such circumstances that the deceased was left with no alternative than to commit suicide or instigate the deceased to commit suicide. Therefore, the petition will have to be allowed.’’