Wife in abetment case gets pre-arrest bail

The Bombay high court last Thursday granted anticipatory bail to a woman who was apprehending arrest for allegedly abetting the suicide of her husband, who had jumped before a running train.

Nayana Dahotre, the woman, had filed a pre-arrest bail application after the police found the dead body of her 67-year-old husband, Prakash, on July 2, 2016 near the Khadki railway track. During investigations, the police found a suicide note written by the deceased, in which he had blamed his wife and son for his extreme step. Following that, the Pune (Loha) railway police station registered a case under section 306 (abetment of suicide) against Dahotre and her son.

After the FIR was registered, the police arrested the deceased’s son and Dahotre filed the pre-arrest bail application. Her lawyer contended before the court that a case of abetment of suicide is not made out against the applicant because even if in a fit of rage she had told her husband to jump from the terrace, it cannot be viewed as abetment to suicide and her custody is not required for investigation.

On the other hand, government pleader S Yadav submitted the suicide note before the court and said that according to this note, the deceased and the applicant were not on talking terms for almost three years and, despite that, she had filed a dowry harassment complaint against her husband almost 40 years after marriage. The deceased expressed his plight in the suicide note, in which he also wrote about ‘humiliating treatment’ meted out to him at home. It was also alleged that Prakash was made to wander outside the house for a whole day and he felt that his status was like that of a beggar.

Advocate Yadav also pointed out to the court that the suicide note mentioned that Dahotre and her son had told Prakash to jump from the terrace of the house and end his life. He thus felt humiliated because of all these reasons and decided to end his life by jumping before the train.

Justice Sadhana Jadhav, however, observed, “Although the suicide note shows that the applicant had exhorted her husband to go and die, it cannot be said that she had, in fact, abetted, facilitated or instigated her husband to commit suicide.”