Title: Lata Pramod Dangre vs State of Maharashtra
Case No.: CRL WP No.: 866 of 2021
Daughter cannot be prosecuted for abetment to suicide for continuously demanding money from father: HC
The Bombay High Court (Nagpur Bench) has ruled that the daughter's repeated pecuniary demands from her father will not attract the offense of abetment to suicide.
A bench of Justices Manish Pitale and Govind Sanpalik made the remarks while hearing a plea by a woman who was booked for allegedly abetting her father's suicide. The woman was accused of repeatedly demanding money from her father and mother. The woman is the daughter of the second wife of the deceased.
The deceased father committed suicide in September 2021 and in the suicide note he said that his daughter and second wife were harassing him mentally and demanding money.
The note also mentions an incident where the deceased invested Rs 2 lakh as a fixed deposit for his second wife but the petitioner forced him to increase the amount to Rs 5 lakh. Even though he managed to increase the amount to Rs 5 lakh, it was then increased to Rs 15 lakh.
Initially, the court observed that the suicide note shows the anguish of the deceased on being harassed by the petitioner and his second wife, but also shows that at best, the second wife of the deceased was demanding money at the instance of the petitioner and was asking for their share in agricultural land.
The court also noted that the informant in the case is the son-in-law of the deceased who had married the daughter of the first wife of the deceased. It was also noted that the suicide note was written five days before the deceased took the extreme step.
According to the court, in such cases, the court is also required to consider the surrounding circumstances, which may affect the deceased to take extreme steps.
In this context, the court observed that there is no close link between the suicide note and the deceased committing suicide.
Therefore, the court allowed the petition and quashed the FIR lodged against the petitioner.