Whether continuous acts of ill-treatment, harassment and defamation would lead to a charge of abetment under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, if the person at the receiving end commits suicide?

Not by itself. Even where there is allegation of constant harassment continued over a long period, there must still be a proximate prior act to clearly find that the suicide was the direct consequence of such continuous harassment — figuratively, ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’, that final event in a series which occasioned a larger, sudden impact. Merely because the victim was continuously harassed and at one point succumbed cannot by itself result in finding a positive instigation constituting abetment.

Indian Penal Code, 1860 — s.306 — s.107 — Indian Evidence Act, 1872 — s.113A — s.113B — Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 — s.482 — Abetment of suicide — Proximate trigger — Mens rea — Indian Penal Code, 1860 — s.306 — Abetment of suicide — Proximate prior act required — Held: Even where harassment is constant and continued over a long period, a proximate prior act must be found before the suicide can be treated as its direct consequence. Continuous harassment alone cannot establish a positive instigation constituting abetment. (¶22) Indian Penal Code, 1860 — s.107 — Mens rea — Intention of the accused, not the victim’s mind — Held further: Mens rea is the intention and purpose of the alleged perpetrator, discernible from conscious acts or words — not what goes on in the mind of the victim. Without a conscious deliberate intention, however harsh the harassment, there is no abetment. (¶23) Indian Evidence Act, 1872 — s.113A — s.113B — Statutory presumptions — Proximate trigger confirmed — Held further: The presumptions aiding Sections 498A and 304B were enacted carefully incorporating the requirement of a proximate trigger, which therefore cannot be absent for abetment. Where the suicide note is suspect and no proximate trigger appears, quashing is right; appeals dismissed. (¶25, 28, 40)

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