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The act of the accused, however, insulting the deceased by using abusive language will not, by itself, constitute the abetment of suicide. There should be evidence capable of suggesting that the accused intended by such act to instigate the deceased to commit suicide. Unless the ingredients of instigation/abetment to commit suicide are satisfied, accused cannot be convicted under Section 306 NEUTRAL CITATION R/CR.A/11/2005 CAV JUDGMENT DATED: 25/07/2024 undefined I.P.C."

19. In the case of M. Arjunan Vs. State, Represented by its Inspector of Police4 , a two-Judge Bench of this Court has expounded the ingredients of Section 306 IPC in the following words:-

"The essential ingredients of the offence under Section 306 I.P.C. are: (i) the abetment; (ii) the intention of the accused to aid or instigate or abet the deceased to commit suicide. The act of the accused, however, insulting the deceased by using abusive language will not, by itself, constitute the abetment of suicide. There should be evidence capable of suggesting that the accused intended by such act to instigate the deceased to commit suicide. Unless the ingredients of instigation/abetment to commit suicide are satisfied, accused cannot be convicted under Section 306 I.P.C."

32. In the facts of the present case, clause secondly and thirdly in Section 107 will have no application. Now, the question remains is as to whether the appellants instigated the deceased to commit suicide. To attract the first clause, there must be instigation in some form on the part of the accused to cause the deceased to commit suicide. Hence, the accused must have 'mens rea' to instigate the deceased to commit suicide. The act of instigation must be of such intensity that it is intended to push the deceased to such a NEUTRAL CITATION R/CR.A/11/2005 CAV JUDGMENT DATED: 25/07/2024 undefined position under which he or she has no choice but to commit suicide. Such instigation must be in close proximity to the act of committing suicide. In the present case, taking the contents of the FIR and the statements of the witnesses as correct, it is impossible to conclude that the appellant instigated the deceased to commit suicide just because of not conceiving a child by the deceased. By no stretch of the imagination, the alleged acts of the appellant can amount to instigation to commit suicide.

33. Considering the ratio enumerated by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the aforesaid decisions, upon which reliance has been put by learned advocate for the appellants, it is found out that the abetment involves a mental process of instigating a person or intentionally aiding a person in doing of a thing and without a positive act on the part of the accused to instigate or aid in committing suicide, conviction cannot be sustained. Further in catena of judicial pronouncement, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has made the position clear that in order to convict a person under Section 306 IPC, there has to be a clear mens rea to commit the offence. Not only that, an active act or direct act is required, which led the deceased to commit suicide seeing no option and that act must have been intended to push the deceased into such a position that he committed suicide. However now considering the above proposition of law, if the NEUTRAL CITATION R/CR.A/11/2005 CAV JUDGMENT DATED: 25/07/2024 undefined facts of the present case are carefully examined, in that event, it is clear that there is no clear mens rea on the part of the appellants to instigate and/or abetment for suicide, which led the deceased to commit suicide. As per the settled proposition of law, in order to prove mens rea, there has to be something on record to establish or show that the appellants herein had a guilty mind and in furtherance of that state of mind, abetted the suicide of the deceased, however, the ingredient of mens rea cannot be assumed to be ostensibly present but has to be visible and conspicuous. It is required to be noted that the essence of abetment lies in instigating a person to do a thing or the intentional doing of that thing by an act or illegal omission, however in the facts of the present case, it is evident that there was no instigation of the appellants upon the deceased to commit suicide. Thus from the material available on record, the theory that the deceased might have committed suicide possibility because of the harassment meted out to her, is not at all borne out as the testimonies of prosecution witnesses do not show that there was instigation and/or abetment on the part of the appellants upon the deceased, which forced her to take such a drastic step of committing suicide.