# Arun Kumar v. State Of U.P - **Citation:** (2016) 4 ILRA 1124 - **Court:** High Court of Judicature at Allahabad - **Decided:** 2016-03-10 - **Bench:** Karuna Nand Bajpayee - **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/allahabad-high-court/arun-kumar-v-state-of-u-p-43554 - **Pages:** 5 ## Headnote Bail - Section 439 Cr.P.C. - Offence under Section 306 I.P.C. - Alleged abetment of suicide - Father forcing minor daughter to self-immolate - Distinction between abetment and murder - Absence of volitional act - Extreme cruelty - Bail rejected. Section 306 I.P.C. - Scope and ingredients - Abetment of suicide requires that the deceased must have committed suicide voluntarily and deliberately - There must be instigation, aid or intentional provocation leading to a conscious decision by the deceased to end her life. Meaning of 'Suicide' and 'Deliberately' - Suicide implies deliberate and intentional self-destruction - An act performed under coercion, threat, or compulsion lacks volitional deliberation and cannot prima facie be termed a voluntary suicide. Allegations against applicant (father of deceased) - Applicant objected to daughter's association with a village boy. Assaulted and dragged her publicly. Forced her to pour kerosene upon herself. Threatened to burn her alive if she did not ignite herself. Prevented others from rescuing her. Victim succumbed to burn injuries. Statements of material witnesses corroborate prosecution version. Prima facie nature of offence - Facts indicate absence of free will on part of deceased - Act of selfimmolation allegedly committed under grave threat and coercion - Matter may even travel beyond abetment and raise graver issues, though final determination lies within domain of trial court. Gravity and cruelty - Conduct of applicant demonstrates extreme cruelty and barbaric behaviour - Dragging, humiliating and compelling one's own daughter to set herself ablaze reflects aggravated circumstances - No liberal approach warranted in such serious offences. Parameters for bail - At bail stage, Court must consider nature of accusation, gravity of offence, evidence available and overall circumstances - Where prima facie material indicates serious offence of coercion leading to death, bail cannot be granted. No case for bail made out - Considering severity of allegations and supporting witness statements, applicant failed to establish grounds for release on bail. Observations confined to bail stage - Findings are limited to adjudication of bail application and shall not prejudice merits of case at trial or stage of framing of charge. Held: In view of the grave allegations, apparent absence of voluntary element in the act of self-immolation, and the extreme cruelty attributed to the applicant, no ground for grant of bail is made out. Bail application rejected. 1126 INDIAN LAW REPORTS ALLAHABAD SERIES ## Text 1124 INDIAN LAW REPORTS ALLAHABAD SERIES "43. Thus, in view of the above, the legal position can be summarized that the law does not envisage a joint reference by two States or reference by several States simultaneously. There may be an establishment having its workmen working in different States of the country, if they are controlled from the Head Office and they are supervised from there, and their salaries, transfers, leaves etc. are being governed from that office and the order giving rise to the industrial dispute, if passed from that office, only the State within those territories that office situate, would have the competence to make a reference. If it is held otherwise in a given case, all States wherever the workmen are working, would have a competence to make a reference and the employer may face the conflicting awards of different labour courts situate in different States, therefore, while deciding the issue, it is to be kept in mind as to which was the office controlling the services of the workmen and where the dispute has substantially arisen. There has to be a nexus between the industrial disputes and the territory of the State competent to make a reference to the labour court. 45. Be that as it may, as there is nothing on record to show that the services of the respondent-employee were being controlled or he was being supervised by any office having an office in State of U.P., it is beyond imagination to hold that the industrial dispute, i.e., termination of the services of the respondent-employee, had substantially arisen in the State of U.P. Mere receipt of the termination order will not confer upon the Government of U.P. to make a reference and in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, it is difficult to hold that the Government of U.P. would be an Appropriate Government and, thus, the reference itself is liable to be quashed. 20. In view of the above discussions and the law laid down by Hon'ble Supreme Court in the above judgments, and the law laid down by the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Anglo-French Drug Co. (Eastern ) Ltd. (supra), I do not find any infirmity in the impugned order. The writ petition is wholly misconceived and, therefore, deserves to be dismissed. 21. In result, the writ petition fails and is hereby dismissed. --------- ORIGINAL JURISDICTION CRIMINAL SIDE DATED: ALLAHABAD 10.03.2016 BEFORE THE HON'BLE KARUNA NAND BAJPAYEE, J. Criminal Misc. Bail Application No.- 41164 Of 2014 Arun Kumar ...Applicant Versus State Of U.P. ...Opposite Party Counsel for the Applicant: D.S. Parmar 4 All. Arun Kumar Vs State Of U.P. 1125 Counsel for the Opposite Party: Govt.Advocate Bail - Section 439 Cr.P.C. - Offence under Section 306 I.P.C. - Alleged abetment of suicide - Father forcing minor daughter to self-immolate - Distinction between abetment and murder - Absence of volitional act - Extreme cruelty - Bail rejected. Section 306 I.P.C. - Scope and ingredients - Abetment of suicide requires that the deceased must have committed suicide voluntarily and deliberately - There must be instigation, aid or intentional provocation leading to a conscious decision by the deceased to end her life. Meaning of 'Suicide' and 'Deliberately' - Suicide implies deliberate and intentional self-destruction - An act performed under coercion, threat, or compulsion lacks volitional deliberation and cannot prima facie be termed a voluntary suicide. Allegations against applicant (father of deceased) - Applicant objected to daughter's association with a village boy. Assaulted and dragged her publicly. Forced her to pour kerosene upon herself. Threatened to burn her alive if she did not ignite herself. Prevented others from rescuing her. Victim succumbed to burn injuries. Statements of material witnesses corroborate prosecution version. Prima facie nature of offence - Facts indicate absence of free will on part of deceased - Act of selfimmolation allegedly committed under grave threat and coercion - Matter may even travel beyond abetment and raise graver issues, though final determination lies within domain of trial court. Gravity and cruelty - Conduct of applicant demonstrates extreme cruelty and barbaric behaviour - Dragging, humiliating and compelling one's own daughter to set herself ablaze reflects aggravated circumstances - No liberal approach warranted in such serious offences. Parameters for bail - At bail stage, Court must consider nature of accusation, gravity of offence, evidence available and overall circumstances - Where prima facie material indicates serious offence of coercion leading to death, bail cannot be granted. No case for bail made out - Considering severity of allegations and supporting witness statements, applicant failed to establish grounds for release on bail. Observations confined to bail stage - Findings are limited to adjudication of bail application and shall not prejudice merits of case at trial or stage of framing of charge. Held: In view of the grave allegations, apparent absence of voluntary element in the act of self-immolation, and the extreme cruelty attributed to the applicant, no ground for grant of bail is made out. Bail application rejected. 1126 INDIAN LAW REPORTS ALLAHABAD SERIES (Delivered by Hon'ble Karuna Nand Bajpayee, J.) 1. Supplementary affidavit filed today is taken on record. 2. This bail application has been filed seeking the release of the applicant on bail in Case Crime No. 210 of 2014, under Section 306 I.P.C., Police Station Rath, District Hamirpur. 3. Heard learned counsel for the applicant and learned A.G.A. 4. Perused the record. 5. Submission of counsel for the applicant is that the investigation of the case has not been done fairly and the applicant had himself lodged an F.I.R. against one Ramakant for committing murder of his daughter but the applicant himself has been made an accused by police and has been falsely implicated in the present case. 6. Learned A.G.A. has opposed the prayer for bail and has submitted that the applicant is the father of the deceased daughter and there is sufficient evidence to indicate that his daughter was seen along with one Ramakant of the village, which was objectionable to the applicant and therefore, being enraged by the same, he had firstly beaten up his daughter and then had dragged her to Ramakant's uncle Ramesh Lodhi's house and had asked her to live along with Ramakant and had also said at that time that Ramakant will have to marry with his daughter. There is also evidence to the effect that when Ramesh Lodhi tried to pacify him, the applicant also had made an assault on the wife of one Badri, who is also said to be uncle of Ramakant. Thereafter once again the applicant brought his daughter back dragging to his house. Subsequently, he brought a kerosene container and forced his daughter to pour it upon herself and asked that she must set herself ablaze. The poor daughter (now deceased) in a terrified state of mind had to do the same under coercion and then the applicant gave the match box to the deceased daughter and forced her to put herself on fire. In fact, the evidence is also to the effect that the applicant had threatened his daughter at that point of time speaking aloud that if she would not put herself on fire, the applicant himself would burn her to death. It was under such horrific threats that the deceased daughter was compelled to set herself on fire. There is evidence also available to the effect that all this time the applicant was shrieking out aloud that if anybody would try to douse or quench the fire, he would be killed by him. In fact, on seeing the poor girl in flames when somebody tried to bring water, the applicant resisted the rescue attempt also. Applicant's daughter thereafter died as a result of burns. Attention of the Court was drawn to the statement of Ramesh Lodhi and Badri who confirmed the aforesaid prosecution story. Attention of the Court was also drawn to the statement of one Krishna Khangar which also lends clinching corroboration to the prosecution allegations as narrated above. 7. Further submission is that in fact the conspicuous facts and circumstances of the case manifestly demonstrates that it is more a case of committing murder of his daughter rather than a case of abetting her to commit suicide. There was hardly any element of wilfull volition on the part of the deceased in this case which may be said to have been created as a result of any instigation 4 All. Arun Kumar Vs State Of U.P. 1127 done by the applicant. Whenever somebody commits suicide, it has to be always a deliberate act of the deceased itself. Putting an end of one's own life deliberately is the act of committing suicide. This act may be the result of somebody's instigation of course. But after being instigated the act of killing one's ownself must be done intentionally or on purpose. Broadly speaking to put it more bluntly, committing the suicide must be the culmination of a decision of deceased itself. If there is someone who instigates or aids the deceased to arrive at such a decision, it will be a case of abetment but there is an elemental difference in between instigating somebody to commit suicide on one hand and forcing someone to commit suicide under the threat of life on the other hand. If someone goes and puts a pistol on somebody's head asking him to consume the capsule of potassium cyanide then if the deceased in such circumstances is forced to consume potassium cyanide, it is very difficult to accept the proposition that such an act will be an act of abetting somebody to commit suicide. Similarly, if at the gun point an accused forces somebody to jump from the tenth floor to the ground, the death as a result of such a fall will be a case of murder and not of committing suicide. In fact, the deceased was forced by the applicant to set herself ablaze under threat. Contention is that in any view of the matter, the conduct of the applicant displays extreme cruelty perpetrated on his daughter and no liberal view in a matter like this is called for. 8. I have considered the rival arguments made at the bar and have perused the record. 9. This indeed looks to be a case in which the teen aged poor girl had committed the common but fatal error of falling in adolescent love with some boy, having remained completely ignorant about the social consequences which might follow. She also appears to have remained incognisant about the inflated sense of domestic vanity and family pride which owes its origin in the age old orthodoxy and diehard conservatism which despite all the rationalism and enlightenment of the modern age still remains a woeful social reality in village life still retaining in its fold many features of effete feudal structure and values. The facts of the case are glaring enough to show that the applicant, who is the father, after coming to know about his daughter's association with the boy Ramakant lost all sense of proportion and equanimity. All efforts to make good sense prevail on him failed and bothering for nothing except his so called wounded sense of social honour he acted in a rather cruel manner. The facts are indeed of such nature in which the act of setting herself ablaze does not appear to contain any element of volitional deliberation on the part of the deceased girl. She put herself on fire not at all as a result of any decision of her own and in fact, the alleged acts of instigation never resulted to persuade the girl to deliberately take the decision of committing suicide. The applicant simply forced her to set herself on fire under his compelling threats and under terrifying effect of his fury which was at its full blaze. 10. It may be relevant to keep in perspective the meaning of word 'suicide' as given in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary as- "Suicide (noun) : the act of killing yourself deliberately". Similarly it can also be useful to keep in perspective the meaning of word 'deliberately' as given in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary as- 1128 INDIAN LAW REPORTS ALLAHABAD SERIES "deliberately (adv) : done in a way that was planned, not by chance" and its synonym as given is 'intentionally, on purpose.' 11. Even if we cast a fleeting glance on the simple dictionary meaning of the aforesaid two words, it would be impossible to hold that such an act which the deceased girl was forced to undertake can ever be termed to be a deliberate or intentional act of killing herself. Submission in this regard made by learned A.G.A. seems to carry force. Disagreement of applicant with the relationship and the objection which the applicant might have had against the same was attended with display of extreme cruelty to the extent which was nothing short of barbarism. Dragging one's own daughter from house to house, humiliating and coercing her to pour kerosene on her own body in full public gaze and then compelling her to ignite the match stick are all such acts of irrational violence which cannot be countenanced with by this Court. 12. This court does not propose to delve any further on this aspect of the matter lest it might create any prejudice in the mind of the trial court which has the primary jurisdiction to decide on the point of framing of charge when that stage comes. In any view of the matter, looking to the nature of offence, its gravity and the evidence in support of it and the overall circumstances of this case, this Court is of the view that the applicant has not made out a case for bail. Therefore, the prayer for bail of the applicant is rejected. 13. It is clarified that the observations, if any, made in this order are strictly confined to the disposal of the bail application and must not be construed to have any reflection on the ultimate merits of the case. ---------