Abetment of suicide

Suicide abetment is defined as the mental process of inciting, encouraging, or helping someone to commit suicide. A conviction cannot stand unless the accused made a determined effort to promote or facilitate suicide.  Section 305 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, deals with assisting a juvenile or crazy person in committing suicide. It stipulates that anybody who assists or abets a person under the age of eighteen, a crazy person, a delirious person, an imbecile, or a person in a condition of insanity is committing a felony of intoxication in committing suicide shall be punished with life imprisonment, a period of imprisonment not to exceed ten years, a fine, or both.

Suicide aiding ingredients

An offense under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 is cognizable, non-bailable, non-compoundable, and triable by the Sessions Court. In the matter of State of Gujarat v. Raval Deepakkkumar Shankerchand (2022), the Gujarat High Court defined the elements that comprise the act of abetment of suicide.

• Abetment and
• The accused intends to facilitate, provoke, or abet the individual’s suicide.

Punishment for aiding suicide

Suicidal aid is criminal under Section 306. The penalty for assisting suicide is 10 years in jail and a fine. The Hon’ble Supreme Court declared in Daxaben v. State Of Gujarat (2022) that aiding and abetting suicide is a severe, grave, and non-compoundable act that cannot be remedied with a simple compromise.

Nexus between section 113A of the Evidence Act and section 306 of IPC

Section 113A of the Evidence Act of 1872 presumes a married woman’s suicide to have been aided by her husband or any relative of his relative if it is established that she committed suicide within seven years of her marriage and that her husband or any of his relatives subjected her to cruelty. The term “cruelty” has the same meaning as it does in Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, must be met to be convicted of the offense under Section 113A. In the case of Gumansinh v. State of Gujarat (2021), the Hon’ble Supreme Court declared that Section 113A of the Evidence Act can be utilized to sustain the accused’s conviction in the absence of direct evidence.

Case Law

In the case of Jangam Ravinder V. The State Of AP, The Telangana High Court has ruled that just saying “go and die” does not constitute the crime of abetment of suicide. The expression “go and die” does not fulfill the definition of ‘instigation’ under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code. The Court ruled that comments made during a heated argument on the spur of the moment cannot be construed as having been spoken with mens rea because the word “instigate” connotes encouragement to do something dreadful.

The Court was hearing an appeal against a sessions court judgment convicting the appellant under Sections 417 (cheating), 306 (abetment of suicide), and 3(2) (v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. He had been condemned to life in jail. The prosecution claimed that the victim, a member of the Scheduled Tribe, drank pesticide after the appellant declined to marry her.

The appellant had previously reportedly attempted to rape the woman, but the matter was settled when he stated his intent to marry her. The High Court stated that the trial court concluded that the appellant provoked the victim by ordering her to “go and die” without considering the material on record in its correct context.

It was also discovered that the accused and victim had “sexual intimacy” up to two months before her death. The Bench also determined that the accused’s reluctance to marry the victim could not have been the cause of the latter’s suicide, because her mother revealed under cross-examination that she had consented to marry someone else.

Abetment of suicide is the act of abetting, inciting, or assisting the victim in committing suicide. It is concluded that abetment is one of the most serious and horrible crimes. Only until all of the elements of abetment of suicide are met may the prosecution build a case of abetment of suicide under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

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