Bombay High Court
Vaijnath Kondiba Khandke vs The State Of Maharashtra And Anr on 23 January, 2018
Bench: S.S. Shinde
1 APPLN4724.2017
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY.
BENCH AT AURANGABAD.
CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 4724 OF 2017
Vaijnath Kondiba Khandke
Age : 54 years, Occu. Govt. Servant,
(Dy. Director of Education),
R/o. Vidyaniketan Quarters,
Near Deogiri College, Aurangabad. ... Applicant
(Orig. Accused)
VERSUS
1. The State of Maharashtra
through Investigating Officer,
Crime No. 0268/2017
M.I.D.C. CIDCO Police Station,
Aurangabad.
2. Dipali Kishor Parashar,
Age : 37 years, Occu. Household,
R/o. Flat No. D-14, Gulmohar Colony,
Uttaranagari, Brijwadi, Aurangabad. ... Respondents
..........
Mr Joydeep Chatterji, Advocate h/f Mr S. B. Rajebhosale, Advocate
for the applicant
Mr V. M. Kagne, APP for respondent No.1
Mr S. P. Brahme, Advocate for respondent No. 2
.............
WITH
CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 5174 OF 2017
Vidya d/o Shahaji Ghorpade,
Age : 53 years, Occu. Service,
R/o. New Nandanvan Colony,
Bhujbal Nagar, Aurangabad. ... Applicant
VERSUS
1. The State of Maharashtra
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2. Deepali Kishor Parashar,
Age : 37 years, Occu. Household,
R/o. Plot No. D-14, Gulmohar Colony,
Uttaranagri, Brijwadi, Aurangabad. ... Respondents
..........
Mr Nilesh S. Ghanekar, Advocate for applicant
Mr V. M. Kagne, APP for respondent No.1
Mr S. P. Brahme, Advocate for respondent No. 2
.............
CORAM : S. S. SHINDE &
A. M. DHAVALE, JJ.
RESERVED ON : 11.12.2017.
PRONOUNCED ON : 23.01.2018.
JUDGMENT [PER A. M. DHAVALE, J.) :-
1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of
the parties, taken up for final disposal at admission stage & heard
finally.
2. Both the applications are for quashing of FIR bearing Crime
No. 0268/2017 registered with M.I.D.C. CIDCO Police Station,
Aurangabad, for the offences punishable u/s 306, 506 r/w 34 of IPC.
3. Heard Shri. Joydeep Chatterji & Shri. Nilesh S. Ghanekar,
learned counsel for the applicants, Shri. V. M. Kagne, learned APP for
State and Shri. S. P. Brahme, learned counsel for respondent no. 2.
3 APPLN4724.2017
4. The FIR and police papers disclose that, deceased Kishor
Parashar, aged 45 years, husband of informant, was serving as a
Clerk in the office of Dy. Director of Education, Aurangabad.
Accused no. 1 - Vaijnath Khandke was Dy. Director (Education) while
accused no. 2 - Vidya Ghorpade is a Clerk in the same department.
On 08.08.2017, deceased Kishor along with his wife Deepali left the
house at 10:00 a.m. Deceased Kishor left his wife at the house of his
sister and went towards the office but the inquiry by Deepali revealed
that he had not reached the office. He was not accessible on mobile.
At 03:00 p.m. when daughter Ruchika reached the house, she saw
two-wheeler of her father at the parking but the house was closed.
On breaking open the house, it was revealed that Kishor had
committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan. On the next
day, Deepali lodged the FIR that her husband used to be under
tremendous mental tension as he was overburdened with the work of
four tables and was required to work upto 10:00 p.m. everyday. His
salary was stopped by accused no.1 - Vaijnath and he was always
threatening and intimidating him. Accused no.2 - Vidya was not
efficient and she was getting all her work done from Kishor. Kishor
was excellent in his work but due to overburden, stoppage of
increment and humiliating treatment in the office, he committed
suicide.
4 APPLN4724.2017
5. It is argued that, the allegations against the applicants even
if taken at their face value, do not disclose any criminal intention on
the part of both the applicants. The allegations do not make out any
offence u/s 306 IPC. There was no abetment by the applicants.
6. Per contra, learned APP and advocate Shri. S. P. Brahme
argued that, the applicants by their behaviour created situation so as
to create unbearable pressure by mental harassment and deceased
Kishor was left with no option but to commit suicide.
7. After carefully considering the arguments and the
judgments cited and the papers produced, we find that the power of
quashing FIR can be exercised in sparing manner where there is a
clear case of abuse of process of court and no material to allow the
prosecution to be continued. In State of Haryana V/s Bhajan Lal"
[AIR 1992 SC 604], seven criteria are given for exercising powers.
Following two are material.
(i) The allegations taken at their face value do not
constitute any offence or make out a case against the
accused.
(ii) The allegations are absurd and inherently improbable
5 APPLN4724.2017
that no prudent person can ever reach a just conclusion
of sufficiency of grounds.
8. We must make it clear that, appreciation of material for
sufficiency can be only at cursory level and this Court while invoking
powers u/s 482 Cr.P.C. cannot go into minute aspects. It should be
left to the trial Judge to decide the merits and demerits of the facts
alleged at the time of taking cognizance, framing of charge or final
disposal.
9. The facts herein indicate that, there was no direct abetment
and the applicants cannot have any intention that the deceased
should commit suicide. Even when the accused persons have no such
intention, if they create situation causing tremendous mental tension
so as to drive the person to commit suicide, they can be said to be
instigating the accused to commit suicide. It is akin to act
imminently dangerous as described in Section 300(4) of IPC. As
held in Ramesh Kumar v. State of Chhattisgarh reported in AIR
2001 SC 3837, if it transpires to the Court that a victim committing
suicide was hypersensitive to ordinary petulance, discord and
differences in domestic life quite common to the society to which the
victim belonged and such petulance, discord and differences were not
expected to induce a similarly circumstanced individual in a given
6 APPLN4724.2017
society to commit suicide, the conscience of the Court should not be
satisfied for basing a finding that the accused charged of abetting the
offence of suicide should be found guilty.
10. The applicants relied on Dadarao Dakore Vs. The State of
Maharashtra 2017 ALL MR (Cri) 1538. In this case, a clerk had
committed suicide due to heavy workload which he was unable to
carry out. He had left behind a suicide note. There was no proximity
of time between alleged instigation and date of incident. The FIR
against the superior Executive Engineer was quashed.
11. State of Maharashtra vs. Ibrahim Pathan 2017 ALL
MR(Cri) 1542. In this case, the accused had abused and abetted the
deceased on a petty quarrel and after two days, the deceased
committed suicide. It was held that there was no evidence of goading
and encouragement. Hence, the acquittal was held proper.
12. Rajendrakumar v State of Maharashtra 2017 ALL MR
(Cri) 1869. The deceased was a salesman and he was allegedly
harassed for not recovering dues from the customers. No specific role
was attributed to any of the accused. There was vague evidence
about creation of mental tension. Hence, the FIR was quashed.
7 APPLN4724.2017
13. In Dilip S/o Ramrao Shirasao & Ors. Vs State of
Maharashtra & Anr decided by Division Bench of Nagpur Bench on
05 August, 2016 (Criminal Application (APL) No. 332 of 2016), a
judicial officer committed suicide leaving behind a note disclosing
names of District Judge and other superior colleagues that they were
responsible for his suicide as he was harassed by them. On scrutiny
of the material, it was found that the allegations were vague and no
case was made out for showing instigation or goading. Hence, the
accused were acquitted.
14. In State of Kerala & Ors v Unnikrishnan Nair & Ors.
2015 CJ(SC) 1275, the deceased had left behind a suicide note
alleging that two colleagues from CBI had cheated him and put him
in deep trouble. The respondents were junior to the deceased.
Considering the vague allegations, it was held that there was no
abetment.
15. In Praveen Pradhan Versus State of Uttaranchal & Anr.
(2012) 9 SCC 734, it was observed that there can be no straight-
jacket formula to determine which act amounts to instigation and
which does not. It is further observed that in a particular case there
may not be direct evidence in regard to instigation which may have
8 APPLN4724.2017
direct nexus with the suicide. Inference has to be drawn from the
circumstances to determine whether a situation was created to totally
frustrate the person and drive him to commit suicide. It was a case of
a qualified graduate engineer subjected to persistent harassment and
humiliation and additionally, also had to endure continuous illegal
demands made by the appellant, upon non-fulfillment of which, he
would be mercilessly harassed by the appellant for a prolonged
period of time. He had also been forced to work continuously for a
long durations in the factory, vis-a-vis other employees which often
even entered to 16-17 hours at a stretch. Such harassment, coupled
with the utterance of words to the effect, that, "had there been any
other person in his place, he would have certainly committed suicide.
It was held that, it amounted to instigation.
16. In Sunita Wawle v State of Maharashtra (Cri. Appln. No.
2159/2017) decided on 14.06.2017 by the Division Bench of this
Court to which one of us (A. M. Dhavale, J.) was a party. The victim
had left behind a suicide note that on account of ill-treatment at the
instance of the accused she was committing suicide. The applicant
Sunita was not performing her duties as a Counselor faithfully. Due
to her irresponsible performance, the image of the medical college
was damaged. It was held that, it did not amount to instigation.
9 APPLN4724.2017
17. In Dr. Shivanand v. State 2017 ALL MR (Cri) 1401, the
Division Bench of this Court held that the allegations against Medical
Superintendent that he did not allow him to resume duties and he
harassed the deceased by non-payment of TA bills and Water bills
and expenses for repair of official vehicle were not sufficient to hold
that there was instigation to him. It was held that the petitioner was
acting in his official capacity.
18. Considering the guidelines and applying them to the facts
of the present case before us, we find that the only allegations against
Vidya Ghorpade - Clerk, applicant in Criminal Application No. 5174
of 2017 is that she was not good in her work and she was giving all
her work to the accused. The material shows that, she was sr. clerk
and was also holding additional charge of Asst. Superintendent.
Even accepting these allegations at the face value, we find that the
act would not amount to abetment for the simple reason that the
deceased had no compelling reasons to perform her work and if he
would have refused to perform her work, nothing could have
happened to him.
19. As far as Vaijnath Khandke, the applicant in Criminal
Application No. 4724 of 2017 is concerned, he was a Dy. Director of
10 APPLN4724.2017
Education. Though he had issued a circular stating that, every
member should complete their work during office hours, the material
on the record shows that, there was heavy work given to deceased
Kishor. Besides, he was given additional charge of one Shinde from
April-2017. The deceased was required to attend the court upto 5:00
p.m. and thereafter he was required to do his office work. In spite of
working upto 10:00 pm he was unable to complete his work and was
attending the office even on holidays. One circular was issued by the
Dy. Director that everybody should produce his report of work done
and if no such report would be given, his payment would be stopped.
The documents on record show that, for years the work of deceased
Kishor was appreciated with highest gradings 'A' or 'A+'. After arrival
of Khandke as Dy. Director in October-2016, Kishor was heavily
burdened. He could not get time to even write the worksheet. His
salary was stopped for the month of July-2017. Besides, there are
allegations that Khandke, who was the Dy. Director and could have
ruined the service career of Kishor was humiliating him by taunts.
Stoppage of salary for the month of July-2017 must have been a big
blow to deceased Kishor when he had an excellent career. He was
working day and night and taking sincere efforts, still he was
awarded with stoppage of increment. One would mentally get
completely depressed. In the circumstances, we find that the
11 APPLN4724.2017
allegations made against Vaijnath are capable of description of
persistent mental harassment and ill-treatments of such nature that
the deceased would find himself in depressing circumstances and
would be frustrated. Having said that, we hold that we are not going
to assess here whether the said material was sufficient or not for
instigating the deceased to commit suicide. We hold that, such
material might be sufficient. We make these observations only for
the purpose of deciding this application and it should not influence
the trial Judge at any stage. In view of this, we hold that, this is not a
fit case for invoking powers u/s 482 of Cr.P.C. with respect to
Vaijnath Khandke. In the result, we pass the following order.
ORDER
(i) Criminal Application No. 5174 of 2017 filed by Vidya
Ghorpade is hereby allowed. FIR bearing Crime No.
0268/2017 registered with MIDC CIDCO Police Station,
Aurangabad for the offence punishable u/s 306, 506 r/w
34 of IPC is quashed to her extent.
(ii) Criminal Application No. 4724 of 2017 filed by Vaijnath
Khandke is dismissed.
[ A. M. DHAVALE ] [ S. S. SHINDE ]
JUDGE JUDGE
Punde
