Delhi HC: Woman not liable for lover’s suicide over ‘love failure’

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court, in granting pre-arrest bail to two individuals accused in an abetment of suicide case,remarked that a woman cannot be held accountable for abetting a man’s suicide if he ends his life due to “love failure”. The court underscored that holding another person accountable for the actions of an individual with a “weak and frail mentality” is not justifiable.

“If a lover commits suicide due to love failure, if a student commits suicide because of his poor performance in the examination, a client commits suicide because his case is dismissed, the lady, examiner, lawyer respectively cannot be held to have abetted the commission of suicide,” Justice Amit Mahajan said.

The court’s order came while granting anticipatory bail to two persons, a woman and her friend, who are facing prosecution for allegedly instigating the man to commit suicide in 2023.

According to a complaint filed by the man’s father, the woman was earlier in a romantic relationship with his son and the other accused, represented by senior advocate Maninder Singh, was their common friend.

It was alleged that the applicants instigated the deceased by telling him that they had physical relations with each other and would soon get married. The body of the deceased was found by his mother in his room. A suicide note was found in which the deceased had said that he was committing suicide because of the two applicants.

The high court said it was correct that the deceased had mentioned the names of the applicants in his suicide note, but it was of the opinion that there was nothing in the note to show that the threats were of such an alarming nature so as to drive a “normal person” to commit suicide.

“Prima facie, the alleged suicide note only expressed a state of anguish of the deceased towards the applicants, but it cannot be inferred that the applicants had any intention that led the deceased to commit suicide,” it said.

The court said that prima facie from the WhatsApp chats placed on record, it appeared that the deceased was of sensitive nature and constantly threatened the woman that he would commit suicide whenever she refused to talk to him.

The court granted the applicants anticipatory bail saying that the purpose of custodial interrogation is to aid the investigation and it is not punitive, adding that custodial interrogation of the two applicants was not required.

It directed the applicants to join the probe and cooperate in the investigation. The State would be at liberty to file a plea seeking cancellation of the bail in case of any violation of bail conditions by them, the court said.

The court underscored that holding another person accountable for the actions of an individual with a ‘weak and frail mentality’ is not justifiable