Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi vs State of Karnataka Through SHO Kakati Police
Background
A young woman who had been in a relationship with the accused for several years travelled to meet him after he stopped communicating with her, expecting him to fulfil an alleged promise to marry her before their community panchayat. When he refused to marry her, she consumed poison she had brought with her and died. The trial court acquitted the accused of all charges, but the Karnataka High Court, on the State's appeal, convicted him of cheating and abetment of suicide (while upholding his acquittal on a separate rape charge).
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that for the offence of abetment of suicide, there must be evidence of "instigation", meaning the accused's acts or continued conduct must have created circumstances that left the deceased with no option but to end her life. It found no direct evidence that the accused instigated or provoked the suicide; he had simply refused to marry her, which is not a positive act done with intent to cause her death, and she appeared to have carried the poison with her already intending to harm herself if refused. Treating this as, at most, a case of a broken relationship rather than criminal abetment or cheating, the Court set aside the High Court's conviction and acquitted the accused, as the trial court had originally done.
Lesson Learnt
A refusal to marry, even after a promise, does not by itself amount to criminal "abetment of suicide". The law requires clear proof that the accused's own actions directly and intentionally drove the person to take that step, not merely that heartbreak followed a broken relationship.