A day after the alleged suicide of TV and film actress Tunisha Sharma, police on Sunday arrested her co-actor, Sheezan Mohammed Khan, on the charge of abetting her suicide in Maharashtra’s Palghar district.
Station house office of Valiv police station said that the Valiv police in Palghar had registered a case against Khan under Indian Penal Code Section 306 (abetment of suicide) and arrested him.
The incident on Saturday took place on the sets where the shooting of the serial ‘Ali Baba: Dastaan-E-Kabul’ was in progress. Police said that Tunisha had gone to the washroom of the set and had not returned for a long time. When the door was broken, she was found hanging inside. No suicide note was found at the spot.
Police said that the actress’ mother has claimed in her complaint that Sharma and Khan were in a relationship, and blamed him for her daughter’s death.
With Section 306 being invoked against Khan, it brings back memories from 2020 when film actress Rhea Chakraborty and five others were booked for abetment of suicide following an FIR that was filed by the father of late film actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who passed away at the age of 34 on June 14, 2020, at his Mumbai flat. Mumbai police said that he had died by suicide.
What is the crime of ‘abetment of suicide’?
The Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 makes abetment of suicide a punishable offence. Section 306 of the IPC prescribes either a jail term of up to ten years or a fine or both to those found guilty of the crime.
“If any person commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide shall be punished with imprisonment of either imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine,” staes the Indian Penal Code while defining Section 306.
The fine is paid to the kin of whosoever is the deceased.
The ‘abetment to suicide’ is a serious offence which is tried in a Sessions Court and is cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable.
How is abetment of suicide different from murder?
It must be noted that ‘abetment of suicide’ is not the same as murder, as the Supreme Court in 1997 in the ‘Sangarabonia Sreenu v State of Andhra Pradesh’ case clarified that despite the intention of the accused to drive a person to commit suicide, abetment of suicide is not the same as murder.
In murder, the final ‘act’ of causing the death is committed by the accused, which is not the case in the abetment of suicide.
There are two primary ingredients of the crime of abetment of suicide, which is suicidal death and the intention of the accused to abet such suicide.
The only exception that is made in the abetment of suicide is of a woman who is married for seven years or less. The amendment in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1983 was made to curb rising dowry deaths.
Recently in October, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices MR Shah and Krishna Murari had said that in cases of alleged abetment to suicide, there must be proof of direct or indirect acts of incitement to suicide. It also said that while adjudicating on such cases, the court of law should not be guided by emotions or sentiments but should rely on facts and evidence on record, Live Law reported.