Criminal intent, direct act instigating suicide must to prove abetment: SC http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/99392117.cms Swati Deshpande Apr 11, 2023,
The arrest of a first-year student of IIT-Bombay on charges of abetting the suicide of his batchmate Darshan Solanki has again turned the spotlight on what constitutes this offence and the judicial pronouncements on abetment.
"In matters of abetment of suicide, human emotions play a very big part and, therefore, police must always be circumspect in exercising their power of arrest. The law on abetment to suicide is now fairly clear and well settled: such allegation of abetment must have a live link with the actual suicide," said senior counsel Amit Desai.
"Abetment involves a mental process of instigating a person or intentionally aiding a person in doing a thing. Without a positive act on the part of the accused to instigate or aid in committing suicide, conviction cannot be sustained," a Supreme Court bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and K S P Radhakrishnan said in 2010 defining 'abetment'.