Bengaluru: Karnataka high court has upheld the acquittal of a Bengaluru couple in an abetment to suicide case pertaining to a deceased juvenile, observing that merely because the accused couple refused to give back his ball and directed him to bring his father, it cannot be taken as abetment to commit suicide.Justice HP Sandesh made this observation while dismissing the appeal filed by Gnanashekar M, a resident of Kamakshipalya, Bengaluru city, and father of the deceased boy.The prosecution’s case was that on Feb 1, 2019, at about 6.30 pm, the boy was playing with a volleyball in front of his house. The ball accidentally fell into the shop of the accused PN Muniraju and his wife, Veena, and broke the glass. When the boy asked for his ball, the couple refused to hand it over, scolded him, and said they would inform his father and teach him a lesson. It was alleged that Muniraju dragged the boy to his house. Unable to bear this, the boy locked his house and committed suicide by hanging from the window.Thereafter, a case for abetment to suicide was registered against the couple and a charge sheet was also filed. However, on Jan 7, 2025, the trial court acquitted the couple by observing that the prosecution had failed to prove the case. Challenging the decision, the boy’s father and complainant in the case moved the high court.After perusing the material on record, Justice Sandesh pointed out that the prosecution failed to prove its case as its witnesses did not support its case. He added that CCTV footage did not contain a conversation between the accused couple and the boy. “None of the prosecution witnesses deposed specifically about the words uttered by the accused couple. There is no evidence of any continuous physical or mental torture meted to the deceased boy by the accused. Merely because the accused might have refused to give back the ball and directed him to bring his father cannot be taken as an abetment to commit suicide,” the judge noted while dismissing the appeal.
