UJJWAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By virtue of the present bail application under Sec. 482 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), the applicant seeks grant of anticipatory bail in proceedings arising from FIR No.503/2025 dtd. 13/8/2025 registered at PS.: Punjabi Bagh, Delhi under Ss. 306/34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC).

(2.) As per FIR, on 9/5/2023, the complainant's daughter ended her life by hanging herself from a ceiling fan at her residence after writing two suicide notes. Though she was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where she was declared brought dead. During inspection, the investigating team seized two suicide notes, two notebooks, and the deceased's mobile phone from the scene. The anal and vaginal swabs sent for FSL showed no presence of semen, and the post-mortem report confirmed the cause of death as asphyxia due to antemortem hanging. The suicide notes, which upon confirmation by the FSL report, attributed the deceased's decision to end her life to the applicant and his family members, alleging that the applicant had misled her for two years, promised marriage and later withdrew under family pressure, and had also established physical relations with her. Upon an application filed by the deceased's parents under Sec. 156(3) of the Cr.P.C., the present FIR was registered pursuant to the order dtd. 12/8/2025 passed by the learned Trial Court.

(3.) Mr. Sarthak Tomar, learned counsel for the applicant submitted that the Instagram and WhatsApp chats exchanged between the deceased and the applicant soon before her death on 9/5/2023 have not been subjected to FSL verification. Even otherwise, there are no messages sent by the applicant therein. Moreover, the aspect of refusal to marry by the applicant and that he had gotten engaged to another woman are also without any support. In any event, the applicant got married nearly three years after the alleged incident, i.e. two months before registration of the present FIR. As per Kamruddin Dastagir Sanadi vs. State of Karnataka[Crl. App. No.551/2012] and Yadwinder Singh @ Sunny vs. State of Punjab and Anr.[Crl. No.7309/2025], even assuming that the applicant declined to marry the deceased, such refusal does not, by itself, constitute instigation or abetment to commit suicide. Moreover, there was no positive/ active act on the part of the applicant which directly led to commission of suicide by the deceased. Hence, in the absence of a clear mens rea and an active/ direct act on behalf of the applicant, the essential ingredients regarding abetment of suicide under Sec. 306 of IPC have not been made out.