Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court made it clear in a judgment that in abatement to suicide cases the mere mention of the name of the accused in the suicide note cannot be a ground for conviction unless its veracity is proven by circumstances.
The High Court made the remark during the hearing of the case Ravi Bharti vs the State of Haryana. Bharti challenged a trial court order convicting him for abatement to suicide under Section 306 of the IPC on the basis of a suicide note purportedly written by the deceased. The trial court sentenced the accused to five years of rigorous imprisonment.
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“The attributions of inculpations, in the purported dying declaration concerned, as purportedly authored by the deceased concerned, and as appertaining to commission of suicide by the maker, and, appertaining to his becoming instigated by any purported potent instigatory actus-reus of the offender(s) concerned, cannot per se be believed, unless all the surrounding circumstances, and, other evidence also suggests that such attribution, is truthful, and/or, is not ridden with any aura of falsity, otherwise not,” stated Justice Sureshwar Thakur during the hearing.
The judge pointed out that the key argument of the prosecution that the deceased died by suicide after being instigated by the accused is based on the suicide note. The accused was acquitted by the High Court.
