MP Delkar's suicide: SC upholds quashing of FIR against UT administrator, others

New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday declined to restore the abetment of suicide case against Dadra & Nagar Haveli (DNH) Administrator Praful K. Patel and others over the death of former MP Mohan Delkar.

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran rejected a special leave petition (SLP) filed by Abhinav Delkar, son of the late MP, challenging the Bombay High Court decision to quash the FIR filed under Section 306 IPC (abetment of suicide) against the UT Administrator and and several administrative and police officials.

Upholding the Bombay High Court’s ruling, the CJI-led Bench observed that "merely because the victim was continuously harassed and at one point, he or she succumbed to the extreme act of taking his life cannot by itself result in finding a positive instigation constituting abetment".

"We are not convinced that there is any modicum of material in the case to find abetment of suicide. The Bombay High Court was not in error when it quashed the FIR," it said.

The apex court, finding the suicide note to be "suspect", said: "We cannot place any absolute reliance on the suicide note, to ferret out a case of abetment, allegations in which were not disclosed in the written complaint to the Hon’ble Speaker or the statements made before the Committee of Privileges."

The SLP contended that the Bombay High Court erred in quashing the abetment of suicide charges, as it failed to properly appreciate the contents of the suicide note and the statements recorded before the Lok Sabha Committee of Privileges.

It alleged that the continued humiliation and administrative pressure suffered by Mohan Delkar "eventually led to the drastic step".

However, the Supreme Court ruled: "True, a person unable to bear the pressure or withstand a humiliation or unable to oppose, may succumb to the extreme act of ending his own life, in desperation; but that would not necessarily mean that the alleged perpetrator had an intention to lead the victim to eventual death by his own or her own hands. We find no such instigation on the part of the accused in this case, or a definitive abetment to suicide, as alleged in the FIR."

In February 2021, Mohan Delkar – the Independent MP from the Union Territory of DNH, Daman and Diu – died by suicide at Hotel Sea Green on Mumbai’s Marine Drive, leaving behind a 15-page note in which he allegedly named Administrator Praful Patel and several other administrative officials from the territory for continuous harassment As per the Mumbai Police, the suicide note was penned on Delkar's letterhead and was reportedly in Gujarati.

--IANS

pds/vd