A Delhi court has held a man guilty of abetting his live-in partner to commit suicide by putting pressure on her to abort her pregnancy in east Delhi’s Mandawali in last year.
The prosecution said that the victim had died by suicide in the balcony of their rented house late in night by hanging herself with her chunni. After her live-in partner found her dead, he burnt the chunni with a lighter before rushing her to a hospital where she was declared brought dead.
The police had registered a case on the statement of the brother of the victim. The father and sister of the woman gave their evidence in the trial.
In his complaint, the victim’s brother said that the accused might have put pressure on the deceased to abort the child and that she might have taken the extreme step under pressure.
The court rejected the defence arguments by the accused that the victim had died by suicide due to pressure from her parents who, he claimed, wanted to get their daughter married to another man.
“As mentioned above, it seems that when accused found the deceased pregnant from him, in order to avoid responsibility which is one of the main subjective factors of this relationship, backed out to continue the said relationship or refused to marry with the deceased. It also seems that as mentioned above, in disappointment of love, deceased took this extreme step and this fact can be considered as abetment, as per definition of ‘abet’,” Addtional Sessions Judge S.K. Gautam said in his judgment.
“Hence, in view of the overall facts and circumstances, court is of the view that prosecution has fully established its case that on the date, time and place of incident, deceased committed suicide on the abetment of the accused. Accordingly, accused is hereby held guilty and is convicted for the offence punishable under Section 306 [of the] IPC,” the judge said.
Suicide prevention helpline: Sanjivini, Society for Mental Health, Telephone: 011-4076 9002, Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. -7.30 p.m.
