Man gets 3-yr RI for abetting wife's suicide

A court in Maharashtra's Thane has

sentenced a 27-year-old man to three-year rigorous imprisonment for abetting his wife's suicide.

Assistant sessions judge Shailendra Tambe last week held Ramanuj Buddhiram Gupta guilty under the Indian Penal Code Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 498-A (husband or his relative subjecting woman to cruelty) and also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on him.

According to the prosecution, Gupta, and the victim, Pratiksha Prakash Deshmukh (24), both residents of Thane and studying engineering at a college in Navi Mumbai, got married at a temple in April 2015 against the wishes of their parents.

However, when Deshmukh's parents were planning a formal ceremony for them on January 20, 2016, she told them that the accused used to beat her and that she wanted to divorce him.

 

The next day, the woman's parents filed a complaint of harassment against the accused at the Kalwa police station.

The victim also later lodged a complaint with the Thane police's cyber cell against the accused for allegedly hacking her e-mail account.

Later, on April 10, 2016, Deshmukh allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling of her house, the prosecution told the court.

The police found a suicide note in which she purportedly blamed the accused for constantly harassing her and driving her to take extreme step.

Her parents subsequently filed a case of abetment of suicide against the accused.

The judge said considering the nature of the offence committed by the accused, he cannot be released on probation.

"In a democracy, law is an instrument of fostering social order and is required to be a channel for doing good and conversely for curbing the evil," he said.

"Once an accused is held guilty, he must realise that he has committed an act which is harmful not only to society of which he forms integral part, but also to his own future, both as an individual and as member of the society," he said.

He said a punishment is designed to protect society by deterring a potential offender and also preventing the guilty party from repeating the offence.

"A lenient as well as too harsh sentence, both lose their efficaciousness," the judge said in his order, while noting the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt all charges against the accused.