The Karnataka High Court recently dismissed a criminal case against a man accused of being involved in the suicide of a Christian priest.

Despite allegations that the accused man encouraged the deceased priest to "hang himself" due to an alleged affair with the accused man's wife, a Bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna determined that these circumstances were insufficient to charge the accused with abetment of suicide.

The judge also echoed the observations made by various courts regarding the complexity of the human mind, which cannot be fully comprehended to ascertain the factors that may lead a person to choose suicide.

"The sole accused, husband of the lady with whom the deceased Father had certain relationship and had blunt out his anger and had uttered words ‘go and hang yourself’ cannot mean that it would become the ingredients of Section 107 of the IPC for it to become an offence under Section 306 (suicide abetment) of the IPC," the Court said.

The deceased priest was discovered hanging in a room on October 11, 2019. Subsequently, a criminal case was filed against the accused on February 26, 2020. The accusation was based on the alleged telephone conversation between the accused and the deceased priest shortly before the latter's death.

The prosecution contended that the priest had taken his own life due to the conversation with the accused individual. According to the prosecution, during the telephone exchange, the accused purportedly revealed that he possessed WhatsApp messages indicating an extramarital relationship between the priest and the accused man's wife.

The accused was reported to have instructed the priest to "go hang himself" due to his involvement in the affair. Additionally, the accused allegedly threatened to report the priest to the police and a bishop. Subsequently, following the trial court's acknowledgment of the criminal charges against the accused individual, he filed a plea with the High Court seeking to dismiss the case.

The High Court expressed the view that permitting the criminal proceedings to proceed in this instance would potentially result in the misuse of legal processes and could lead to unjust outcomes. Consequently, it granted the plea of the accused and dismissed the case against him.

Senior Advocate Sandesh J Chouta and Advocate Rakshith Kumar appeared for petitioner (accused).

High Court Government Pleader KP Yashodha appeared for the State.

Case Title: David D'Souza v State