DINESH BABU Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner herein has been arrayed as accused no.1 among the 3 accused in crime No. 856/2018 of Kodungalloor Police Station in which the offences alleged are those punishable under Sections 498A and 306 of the IPC. Accused nos. 2 and 3 in the above said crime are the mother and sister respectively of the 1st petitioner. The above said crime arises out of the suicide committed by the wife of the petitioner herein.

(2.) The brief of the prosecution case is that on 18.9.2018 at after 10 a.m., the deceased lady had committed suicide by pouring kerosene over herself and then setting her ablaze and the deceased lady had died on the same day. Further case of the prosecution case is that the petitioners herein (husband, mother-in-law & sister-in-law) of the deceased lady had constantly harassed and inflicted cruelty on her and has frequently demanded more dowry amount and that by their consistent behaviour of inflicting cruelty and harassment on her, she was driven to commit suicide and that therefore, the petitioners have thereby committed the offences punishable under Sections 498A and 306 of IPC.

(3.) Consequent to the directions issued by this Court in Annexure A2 order dated 17/07/2019, the petitioner has undergone interrogation process before the IO and thereafter the learned Magistrate ordered to remand him and he has been in custody since 22/08/2019. Counsel for the petitioner would point out that the interrogation has been completed effectively and petitioner has fully co-operated with the interrogation process and that thereafter, the IO has not sought the permission to again subject the petitioner for custodial interrogation as the interrogation process is completely over. Further it is pointed out by the petitioner's counsel that since the petitioner has fully co-operated with the interrogation process, no effective purpose will be served by his continued detention and that this Court may order to release him on regular bail. In that regard, counsel for the petitioner would point out that none of the vital ingredients of offence of abatement as per section 107 of the IPC and offence of abatement of committing suicide as per section 306 of the IPC are made out in this case and petitioner's counsel has placed reliance on various decisions of the Apex Court and that of this Court in cases as in Sanju @ Sanjay Singh Sengar v. State of M.P . [2002 SCC (Crl) 1141], Dr. Krishnadas. P. v. State of Kerala and another [2017 (2) KLT 579] and Gurcharan Singh v. State of Punjab [2016 (12) SCALE 414], Harikrishnan & another v. State of Kerala & another [ 2019 (3) KHC 437] etc, and would contend that the ingredients of the vital element of instigation to commit suicide of the deceased are not available in this case.