The Karnataka High Court has ruled that statements such as “go hang yourself” alone would not amount to abetment of suicide. The order was pronounced on April 22 by a bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna on a petition by a man who was accused of abetment of the suicide of a priest in a Udupi church.
It was alleged in the FIR against the accused that the priest had ended his life after a conversation with him in which he told the priest to “hang himself” for having a relationship with his wife.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the accused had spoken out of the agony of discovering the relationship and that the priest died by suicide as the affair was now known to somebody else. He argued that the mental makeup of the deceased could not be dependent on a statement by the accused. The opposing counsel argued that he had actually ended his life owing to the threatening words of the accused that he would reveal the affair.
The bench observed based on earlier cases laid down by the Supreme Court, ” …Husband of the lady with whom the deceased father had a certain relationship and blunt out (sic) his anger and had uttered words “go and hang yourself” cannot mean that it would become …an offence under IPC – abetment to suicide. ”
The court quashed the case, saying, “The reason for the deceased to commit suicide in the case at hand may be myriad, one of which could be the factum of him having an illicit relationship with the wife of the petitioner, despite being the father and priest of a church. It is trite that the human mind is an enigma and the task of unravelling the mystery of the human mind can never be accomplished.”