Supreme Court dismisses plea against quashing FIR in ex-MP Mohan Delkar's suicide case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday upheld Bombay High Court's order of 2022, which quashed a criminal case registered against nine persons, including Dadra Nagar Haveli Union Territory Administrator Praful Khoda Patel, for allegedly abetting the suicide of MP Mohan Delkar in 2021.

A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran dismissed the plea filed by Abhinav Mohan Delkar, son of the deceased, saying the High Court rightly quashed the proceedings, finding the charge of abetment to commit suicide to be absent. 

"True, a person unable to bear the pressure or withstand a humiliation or unable to oppose, may succumb to the extreme act of ending his own life, in desperation; but that would not necessarily mean that the alleged perpetrator had an intention to lead the victim to eventual death by his own or her own hands," Justice Chandran wrote in the 32-page judgment for the bench.

The court pointed out, even if there is allegation of constant harassment, continued over a long period; to bring in the ingredients of Section 306 read with Section 107 of the IPC, still there has to be a proximate prior act to clearly find that the suicide was the direct consequence of such continuous harassment, the last proximate incident having finally driven the subject to the extreme act of taking one’s life. Figuratively, ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’; that final event, in a series, that occasioned a larger, sudden impact resulting in the unpredictable act of suicide.

"What drove the victim to that extreme act, often depends on individual predilections; but whether it is goaded, definitively and demonstrably, by a particular act of another, is the test to find mens rea. Merely because the victim was continuously harassed and at one point, he or she succumbed to the extreme act of taking his life cannot by itself result in finding a positive instigation constituting abetment. Mens rea cannot be gleaned merely by what goes on in the mind of the victim," the bench said.

Delkar, 58, a seven-term MP from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, was found dead in a room at a hotel in Marine Drive in south Mumbai on February 22, 2021.

Based on a suicide note, Patel and eight others were booked by the Mumbai police in March 2021 for allegedly abetting the suicide and criminal intimidation of Delkar.

"We cannot place any absolute reliance on the suicide note, to ferret out a case of abetment, allegations in which were not disclosed in the written complaint to the Speaker or the statements made before the Committee of Privileges," the bench said.

Having found the suicide note to be suspect, the court said it was not convinced that there is any modicum of material in the case to find abetment of suicide. 

The FIR was filed on March 9, 2021 by Abhinav Delkar, son of the deceased. It was alleged the MP was not invited to public functions and he faced attempts of extortion and taking over of the trust and the college ran by it. He raised the issue with the Committee of Privileges as well.

The bench, however, said, "We cannot find the suicide to be a direct result of the actions complained of."

Tragically, the court noted, a life was lost, leaving questions unanswered. 

"Despite our anxious reading and re-reading, the complaints made, the statements recorded, the suicide note; over which there is a cloud, and the subsequent conduct of the police regarding the delay in registering a crime and the casual statements made in the FIR, persuade us to negate the contention that the allegations levelled were the direct causation of the death," the bench said.

Besides Patel, the other accused in the case were - Sandeep Singh, the then District Collector; Sharad Darade, the then Superintendent of Police; Apurva Sharma, the then Deputy Collector; Manasvi Jain, Sub Divisional Officer; Manoj Patel, Police Inspector (Silvassa); Rohit Yadav (DNH administrative department official); political leader Fattesingh Chauhan and Dilip Patel (Talathi of Silvassa).

In its judgment, the court emphasised on the test of mens rea, which would depend on the facts of each case. 

It pointed out, the social status, the community setting, the relationship between the parties and other myriad factors would distinguish one case from another. 

"However harsh or severe the harassment, unless there is a conscious deliberate intention, mens rea, to drive another person to suicidal death, there cannot be a finding of abetment under Section 306. We have already seen that even a rebuke to “go, kill yourself”; often a rustic expression against distasteful conduct, cannot by itself be found to have the ingredients to charge an offence of abetment to suicide," the bench said.

The bench also noted there is no uniformity in how different individuals respond and react under pressure. 

"Many stand up, some fight back, a few runaway and certain people crumble and at times take the extreme step of suicide. To put the blame on the pressure imposed and the person responsible for it, at all times, without something more to clearly discern an intention, would not be the proper application of the penal provisions under Section 306," the bench said.