Supreme Court: There Must Be Evidence To Substantiate Existence Of Suicide; To Attract Section 306 Of Indian Penal Code

The Supreme Court in the case Yaddanapudi Madhusudhana Rao vs State of Andhra Pradesh observed and has stated that there must be evidence to substantiate the existence of suicide in order to attract section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 i.e., abetment to suicide.
In the present case, the chargesheet was lodged against the accused as stated under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The court while following the death of his wife, her father who was then functioning as a Sub-Inspector of Police, had given the complaint against him alleging for the abetment of suicide. The High Court dismissed the plea seeking quashing of FIR.
The Apex Court bench comprising of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice JB Pardiwala in the case observed and has noted that the very factum of death by suicide has not been proved and that the accused was not in speaking terms with the deceased wife.
The court in the case noted that the de facto complainant being a police officer himself has not given a compliant promptly after the death. Thus, he himself in the case performed the cremation the next day, and gave the complaint on April 18, 2009. Therefore, the Statement of LW13 has to be understood on the attending circumstances. The statement given by LW3 also has no value and substance and it being rather strange that the de facto complainant and his family were not aware of any of the facts alleged till such time, especially when in the case the deceased and the accused were visiting them frequently, and the occurrence took place in the de facto in the house of the complainant’s.
The court in the case observed that the continuation of trial would certainly be prejudicial to the appellant, as there being no material evidence sufficient enough to attract the ingredients of Section 306 of the Indian penal Code, 1860.
Accordingly, the court allowed the appeal.