HC: Sarcastic laugh led to loss of life

MUMBAI:THE Bombay high court recently refused to grant anticipatory bail to an Ulhasnagar resident, Rakhi Patra, who has been booked for abetting the suicide of her ex-boyfriend.

Patra’s ex-boyfriend, Honey Aswani, hanged himself to death last year. He had videocalled her and expressed his desire to commit suicide. Patra, in response, had laughed and challenged him to act on it.

The bench of Justice AS Gadkari said that prima facie, it appeared that she had instigated and abetted the victim.

The judgement was passed on

the basis of the details filed in the first information report. The complaint, filed by Aswani’s father, states that upon receiving the call, Patra laughed and told him to turn his “threat into

reality.”

“It appears that the said sarcastic laugh of the applicant, along with her instigation to the deceased Mr Honey to bring his alleged threat into reality, has ultimately resulted in the loss of life of the deceased,” said the judge.

A person of common prudence would have made an attempt to dissuade him from ending his life, he added.

According to the police, the two had been in a relationship for six to seven years. They had eventually parted ways and married other people.

On May 21, 2017, they spent an evening together in a hotel in Kalyan. The incident took place later the same day.

A first information report was the registered at the Hill Line police station against the woman under section 206 of the Indian Penal Code.