CHANDU ARJAN RUDACH Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The applicants - accused have been arraigned as accused in the FIR being 11218009210775 of 2021 registered with Kamlabaug Police Station, for the offences punishable under Ss. 306 and 114 of the Indian Penal Code. Pursuant to the FIR, chargesheet came to be filed, which has culminated into Sessions Case No. 48 of 2021 which is pending before the Sessions Court, Porbandar. The applicants by way of this quashing application under Sec. 482, seek to quash the criminal proceedings, mainly on the ground that, the ingredients of Sec. 107 i.e. abetment are missing and therefore, no case is made out for the alleged commission of suicide.

(2.) The brief facts giving rise to file present application are that, deceased Bharabhai Jodhabhai, committed a suicide by consuming poisonous substance. Before he could commit suicide, he had circulated video clip on the social media stating therein the cause of committing suicide. In the video clip the deceased made serious allegations against the applicants in relation to the harassment as by way of social media like whats-app and face book, they published defamatory story and demanded Rs.1.5 crore from the deceased and if he failed to pay the amount, he will be falsely implicated in the criminal offences. The deceased was fed up with the story published by the accused in the social media, as a result, he committed a suicide.

(3.) In the aforesaid facts, learned counsel Mr. C.J. Vin has submitted that, the applicants have been falsely implicated in the alleged act of suicide. Before the incident, the accused Chandu Rudach was abducted by the deceased and his 3 brothers and was severely beaten up by them. The accused no. 1, stripped naked and was paraded in the market place. The FIR of the said incident being registered against the deceased and his 3 brothers and the Government by taking the serious note of the incident and considering the past history, initiated a proceedings under the provisions of preventive detention and they had been detained in the PASA also. In these background facts, it is submitted that, if the chargesheet case papers and allegations in the form of video clip accepted in its entirety, the abetment of the offence is not established and the papers lack the ingredients of the offence alleged. In the chargesheet case papers, nothing come on record that the accused have provoked incited or induced the deceased to commit the suicide and as such the accused having no intention to encourage the deceased to commit suicide and therefore, in absence of mens-ria on the part of the applicant, they cannot be held liable for the abetment of the suicide.