Delhi HC upholds acquittal of woman, her brothers in husband's abetment to suicide case

New Delhi, Jul 11 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has upheld the acquittal of a woman and her family members in a case of abetment of suicide of her husband, saying there was no act of incitement on their part to the date when the man took his life.

The high court said the possibility of the suicide note having been written by the victim on some earlier date out of dejection, cannot be ruled out.

"The suicide note neither spells out any circumstance, which can be labelled as abetment on the part of the respondents no. 2 to 6 (wife and his family) nor does it disclose any proximate reason for the suicide.

"There are general allegations of continuous threats of false implication in dowry cases. It may be a case where the deceased was unhappy and dejected with his marriage but definitely, no act of abetment can be made out either from the suicide note or from the testimony of his parents," Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said in a judgment passed on July 10.

After perusing the suicide note of deceased Vijay Singh, the court said no act of incitement on the part of his wife and her four brothers proximate to the date on which his committed suicide can be made out.

Vijay and Urmila got married in April 2008 and the man committed suicide in May 2010.

It said the only allegation being made was that the wife, Urmila used to threaten the deceased that he and his family members would be implicated in a false dowry case and that she also used to get those threats extended through her brothers.

"Such vague assertions cannot be sufficient to prove that without their being any specific incident or dates to conclude them to be acts of abetment," the high court said.

It upheld a trial court's order acquitting all the five persons in the abetment to suicide case and said the sessions court has rightly concluded that there was no positive action on the part of the accused that can be said to have created a situation for the victim to put an end to his life.

The high court dismissed the appeal filed by the parents of the deceased challenging the trial court order, saying there was no merit in it.

It was alleged that soon before the deceased committed suicide, he had a fight with his wife. It was alleged that the wife and her family members used to harass and give them threats about false implication of the husband and his family members in a dowry case.

Vijay committed suicide on April 2, 2010 and a suicide note was handed over by the deceased's father to the police a day later.

It was claimed that the wife and her family members harassed and compelled the husband to take the extreme step.

The father and mother of the husband deposed before the court that the wife had done cruelty. They claimed that the wife had attempted to commit suicide many a times by trying to burn herself from a gas cylinder and also by consuming acid.

Upholding the acquittal, the high court noted that the testimonies of deceased's parents showed that the wife had certain issues in the matrimonial home and it was she who had been attempting to commit suicide.

It added that though the father had claimed a marital discord between the deceased and his wife but no such cogent evidence was brought on record.

"In the absence of any evidence of there being any kind of instigation, encouragement or aiding on the part of the respondents no. 2 to 6, it cannot be said that they were guilty of any act, which could be termed as abetment to drive the deceased to commit suicide," the high court said. PTI SKV ZMN