Atul Subhash, a 34-year-old software engineer in Marathahalli, Bengaluru, tragically ended his life, leaving behind a 24-page suicide note and a sign reading “Justice is Due.” In a video, Atul revealed enduring over 120 court hearings, requiring him to travel between Bengaluru and Jaunpur 40 times, along with his family. Advocate Amish Agarwal, speaking to NewsX Live, emphasized the difficulties in establishing abetment to suicide in such cases.
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NEW DELHI: A 34-year-old software engineer Atul Subhash committed suicide at his home in Marathahalli, Bengaluru, leaving a 24-page suicide note behind. He had pasted a sheet of paper with the words ‘Justice is Due’ while killing himself.
In the video, Atul said that till now 120 court dates have been fixed and Atul himself had gone from Bangalore to Jaunpur 40 times. Apart from this, his parents and brother also have to visit the court.
But one angle that the case brings in , is the Abetment to Suicide , which is a great question that sparks interest related to the Atul Subhash’s case. Abetment to suicide is not a very well found case that can be proved as the conviction levels in such cases have rather been low.
For further information ,
“The term “abet” refers to providing assistance, cooperation, or support, often with an unlawful intent to commit a crime. It includes aiding someone in carrying out an act under such circumstances. Abetment of suicide, on the other hand, refers to the act of assisting, encouraging, or instigating someone to take their own life.”
Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita,2023, defines the offence of Abetment to Suicide.
In an interview, Advocate Amish Agarwal, speaking on the matter, highlighted the challenges of proving abetment to suicide in court. He particularly said,
“The Supreme Court has previously clarified that the mere filing of a case cannot constitute abetment unless false allegations are proven, and instigation is established through concrete evidence. Atul’s suicide note and video mention extortion and direct instigations, which may serve as crucial evidence. However, proving such claims in court remains difficult”
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AOR Amish Aggarwala also mentioned-
“The trend of false accusations persists in the society and due to the sentiment around this case, judges have recently shown sensitivity towards husbands and men falsely accused. However, this sentiment will fade within a week or ten days, as society often views men as emotionless individuals to be walked over”
He expressed his views , largely upon the rising false accusations against the men and also , how Atul’s case and his family will find it difficult to prove the Abetment to suicide in the present case, without any cogent and reliable evidence. He also, expressed his thoughts on, how the the lawyers nowadays are encouraging women to file false cases and how it can be curbed?
To this AOR Mr. Aggarwala said,
“One aspect is people who are leveling false allegations they cannot be allowed to go scot-free with the excuse and has to be held accountable for their own actions apart from that, lawyers who themselves are encouraging false cases should also be taken to task, an appropriate complaint of professional misconduct should be filed before the State Bar Council who is there to govern the actions of these individuals and if a person is found to have you know partaking in professional misconduct that license should be taken away”
On the misuse of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code , which is Section 85 of the BNS , AOR Amish Aggarwala , emphasized, that for every one such judgment, there are countless others where similar trends persist—husbands facing false allegations are told to prove their innocence in trial, which could take years, and relatives of the husband, often falsely implicated, are made to go through lengthy legal proceedings.
On setting a precedent, on such divorce and separation proceedings, AOR Amish Aggarwala mentioned,
“We are also, as a nation, despite several decades of independence, still evolving ourselves in comparison to jurisdictions which have had far more time in comparison to us—countries like the USA, the UK—these are centuries-old judicial systems. I must confess, from whatever I’ve seen, they are facing the same problems.”
“They are seeing false accusations by either the wife or the husband. My learning from all of this is that matrimonial law will always remain a little bit of a gray area where the judges can try to do their best. However, one thing that I say is that these other jurisdictions, at least when proof is shown by a husband to the police or to the judge, they do consider this evidence, whereas in India, they completely shut their eyes to concrete evidence.”
-Aggarwala added.
He conclusively suggested , two actionable steps that can be taken to prevent the misuse of laws by the women , that were initially brought in to protect them,
“One is that when a husband shows concrete proof of his innocence, then he should be exonerated, and the case against him should be dismissed. It is one thing to say that the allegations put forth by the wife—are they true or not? We do not want to decide today. But if the husband shows that the wife’s allegations are completely false—look at my WhatsApp chats, look at my emails, look at these videos—those should not be disregarded. And if the husband’s proof is found to be accurate, then dismiss the case against him entirely.”
“Number two, if completely false accusations are apparent on the record, then the false accuser should face punishment, should go to jail, should be hit with some sort of fines so as to act as a deterrent effect. . This will prevent false allegations and preserve the sanctity of the remedies available to a genuine victim as well.”
-Aggarwala concluded.
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