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TMI Blog2012 (10) TMI 1276X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . 285 of 2005 (Crime No. 258/2005) pertaining to P.S.: Ranipur, Haridwar. 3. The facts and circumstances giving rise to this appeal are as follows: A. That, a First Information Report (hereinafter referred to as 'FIR') was lodged by one Ambreesh Singh, who is the brother of Anurag Singh, the deceased, alleging that the Appellant had long been attempting to compel the deceased to indulge in several wrongful practices at the work place. The deceased was not comfortable with complying with such orders and as a consequence, the Appellant started making illegal demands and as the same were not fulfilled, he began to harass and insult the deceased at the regular intervals. The Appellant, in fact, on one occasion, disgraced the deceased in front of the staff of the entire factory, and told him that had there been any other person in his place, he would have died by hanging himself . B. Anurag Singh talked to several of his family members on 6.10.2005 over the phone. They stated that he came across as highly perturbed and, hence, they tried to pacify him. However, owing to the constant humiliation and ill-treatment meted out to him by the Appellant, Anurag Singh committed suicide o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... does not amount to harassment/cruelty of such intensity, that it may be termed as abetment to commit suicide. Hence, the appeal deserves to be allowed. 5. Per contra, Shri Rahul Verma, Learned Counsel appearing for the Respondent-State, has vehemently opposed the appeal, contending that the Appellant would persistently and consistently harass the deceased to compel him to do various illegal things and that it was not an isolated instance of harassment, or an occasional off hand remark that was made by the Appellant in relation to the deceased. As the deceased had refused to fulfil the illegal demands of the Appellant, the Appellant made his life extremely difficult, by humiliating him constantly which eventually drove him to commit suicide. Therefore, the facts of the case being as explained above, do not warrant any interference with the impugned judgment and order of the High Court. The appeal is, hence, liable to be dismissed. 6. We have considered the rival submissions made by Learned Counsel for the parties and perused the records. 7. In the FIR, the complainant, who is the brother of the deceased, made several allegations against the Appellant, all of which, have also been m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 95) Supp (3) SCC 438, a similar question arose before this Court wherein one Sushila Bai, a married woman allegedly had two paramours. There was sexual jealousy between the two. Sushila had managed to completely bewitch one of them. In one fine morning, while Sushila Bai was having her morning tea with both her paramours, they began to quarrel. During the course of such quarrelling, one of them made a remark asking the other to go and die . The other person to whom such remark was made, went home very dejected and thereafter, committed suicide. This Court held as under: In the first place, it is difficult in the facts and circumstances, to come to even a prima facie view that what was uttered by the Appellant was enough to instigate the deceased to commit suicide. Those words are casual in nature which are often employed in the heat of the moment between quarrelling people. Nothing serious is expected to follow thereafter. The said act does not reflect the requisite mens rea on the assumption that these words would be carried out in all events. Besides, the deceased had plenty of time to weigh the pros and cons of the act by which he ultimately ended his life. It cannot be said tha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that the accused had in some way aided any act or illegal omission to cause the said suicide. In the said case, this Court, after Assessing the material on record, found that the deceased was suffering from mental imbalance which caused depression. The accused had never intended for the deceased employed under him to commit suicide. This Court observed that if the making of observations by a superior officer, regarding the work of his subordinate, is termed as abetment to suicide, it would become almost impossible, for superior officers to discharge their duties as senior employees. 12. In Chitresh Kumar Chopra v. State (Government of NCT of Delhi) AIR 2010 SC 1446, this Court while dealing with the term 'instigation' held: Instigation is to goad, urge forward, provoke, incite or encourage to do an act . To satisfy the requirement of instigation , though it is not necessary that actual words must be used to that effect or what constitutes instigation must necessarily and specifically be suggestive of the consequence. Yet a reasonable certainty to incite the consequence must be capable of being spelt out. Where the accused had, by his acts or omission or by a continued cours ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , while dealing with an application for quashing of the proceedings, a court cannot form a firm opinion, rather a tentative view that would evoke the presumption referred to under Section 228 Code of Criminal Procedure. 16. Thus, the case is required to be considered in the light of aforesaid settled legal propositions. In the instant case, alleged harassment had not been a casual feature, rather remained a matter of persistent harassment. It is not a case of a driver; or a man having an illicit relationship with a married woman, knowing that she also had another paramour; and therefore, cannot be compared to the situation of the deceased in the instant case, who was a qualified graduate engineer and still suffered persistent harassment and humiliation and additionally, also had to endure continuous illegal demands made by the Appellant, upon non-fulfillment of which, he would be mercilessly harassed by the Appellant for a prolonged period of time. He had also been forced to work continuously for a long durations in the factory, vis- -vis other employees which often even entered to 16-17 hours at a stretch. Such harassment, coupled with the utterance of words to the effect, that, h ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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