The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court recently quashed an FIR against three students charged with abetting the suicide of a colleague. “They are young and their future will be destroyed if they are asked to face trial for this charge,” it said.
A division bench of justices T.V. Nalawade and M.G. Sewlikar was hearing a criminal application filed by three students — Sayeeshdarshan Kanala, 21, Sanket Adlak, 22, and Piyush Dawkar. The complaint filed by Sushil Khawase had alleged that his daughter, a final year B.E Computer student, hanged herself on May 24, 2019 and that the three accused were responsible for her suicide.
Mr. Khawase said he was examining some articles of his deceased daughter on May 27 and he found a two-page note. According to him, Mr Kanala and his friends had defamed his daughter. He said Mr. Kanala had left his daughter for a new girl friend and this disturbed her mentally. He alleged that his daughter believed that her private photographs had been leaked after her electronic devices were hacked, driving her to suicide.
However, the court was informed that an expert’s report had said there was nothing to indicate that the girl’s laptop was hacked. On the other hand, her college record showed that she had failed her last semester. There was also a record to show that she had been called for an interview by a prestigious company, for which she could not appear because she had failed in her last exam.
The court said though this reason was not mentioned in the suicide note, the fact remained that her friends had got through college and were to get jobs, while she could not as she had failed in one subject. “For committing suicide, there can be many reasons, and for making out a case of abetment to suicide, it is necessary to show that there was intentional instigation from the accused. Even if aforesaid circumstances are accepted, it cannot be said that there was an intention on the part of the applicants to instigate the deceased to commit suicide. There is virtually no material, except the so-called suicide note,” it said as it quashed the FIR.
“The applicants are young and their future will be destroyed if they are asked to face trial for the aforesaid offences on the basis of material discussed above,” the court said. “It is also uncertain how much time will be required to complete investigation. This court holds that the applicants cannot be prosecuted for the offence of abetting the suicide of the deceased.”
