Recently, in a ruling emphasising the necessity of establishing a clear causal link between alleged conduct and a suicide, the Karnataka High Court’s Dharwad Bench has quashed an FIR against a woman accused of abetting her husband’s suicide, despite the presence of a “death note” naming her.
The case arose from the marriage of the petitioner, Feebi Gottam, to Petaru Gollapalli in December 2022. According to the complaint lodged by the deceased’s brother, the couple cohabited for about three months before the petitioner returned to her parental home. Efforts to resume the marital relationship were unsuccessful, leading to separate legal proceedings, the deceased filing a petition for restitution of conjugal rights before the Family Court, and the petitioner initiating a domestic violence case under the Protection Of women’s in Domestic Violence Act,2005. In January 2025, the husband allegedly died by suicide at his residence, leaving behind a note stating that his wife “needs his death” and had “tortured him.” The FIR was registered on that basis.
The Court noted that the couple had been living separately for over a year and that the complaint did not detail any specific act by the petitioner proximate to or directly causing the suicide. For invocation of Sec.108 BNS ,the alleged act must have “proximity and nexus with the death” and should have “abated, instigated or aided” the act of suicide. While referring to various Supreme Court precedents, the High Court reiterated that mere allegations of harassment or casual statements like “go and die” do not amount to “instigation” without a clear mens rea and a direct, active act compelling the deceased to take the extreme step.
Concluding that the essential ingredients of abetment were not made out, the Court deemed it an appropriate instance to invoke the Court’s inherent jurisdiction to “secure the ends of justice,” and ordered that the FIR and all proceedings stand quashed.
