Mere harassment is not sufficient to hold someone guilty of the offence of abetting suicide, and there must be clear evidence of direct or indirect incitement, the Supreme Court has said. The observations came from a bench of justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale which delivered its verdict on an appeal challenging a Gujarat High Court order which refused to discharge a woman’s husband and her two in-laws for allegedly harassing her and driving her to suicide. The case, registered in 2021, involved accusations under sections 498A (cruelty to a married woman) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 306 carries a penalty of up to ten years of imprisonment and a fine.
