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CASE NO.: Appeal (crl.)  359 of 2005

PETITIONER: Netai Dutta                                                              

RESPONDENT: State of West Bengal                                             

DATE OF JUDGMENT: 28/02/2005

BENCH: K.G. Balakrikshnan & Tarun Chatterjee

JUDGMENT: JUDGMENT O R D E R [Arising out of S.L.P. (Criminal) No. 3254 of  2004]

       Leave granted.

       Heard appellant’s counsel and counsel for the respondent.

       Appellant herein is an accused in a crime registered for the  offence under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code.  The appellant  filed a petition under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code to  quash the criminal proceedings initiated against him.   The learned  Single Judge declined to quash the proceedings and hence this appeal.

       One Pranab Kumar Nag was an employee of M/s M.L.  Dalmiya &  Co. Ltd.   During the course of his employment, he had been posted at  various work sites of the company and on 11.9.1999 he was  transferred to the work site of the company’s stores located at 160,  B.L. Saha Road, Kolkata.     It seems that pursuant to the transfer  order,   Pranab Kumar Nag did not join duty and after a period of  about two years he sent in a letter of resignation written in his own  hand wherein he expressed his grievance of stagnancy of salary and  also alleged that he was a victim of unfortunate circumstances.   The  company accepted his resignation with immediate effect.    On  16.2.2001, a dead body was found at the railway tracks near  Ballygunge railway station and it was revealed that it was the body of  Pranab Kumar Nag.    His brother went to the office where Pranab  Kumar Nag had worked and made enquires.  The dead body of Pranab  Kumar Nag was released to his brother after the post-mortem  examination on 19.2.2001.    After a period of two months, a  complaint was lodged before the police post on the basis of a suicide  note allegedly recovered from the dead body of Pranab Kumar Nag.     Based on the complaint, a case was registered against the appellant  and some others.    A translated copy of the suicide note is produced  before us by the appellant.   We have carefully read the alleged suicide  note.   The substance of this suicide note is that deceased   Pranab  Kumar Nag alleged that appellant Netai Dutta and one Paramesh  Chatterjee engaged him in several wrong-doings (he has shown as a  type of torture) and at the end of the letter, a reference is also made  to Paramesh Chatterjee and   Netai Dutta   alleging that he reported  certain incidents to them.   A reading of the letter would show that  deceased Pranab Kumar Nag was not very much satisfied with the  working conditions in the office.   In the letter he has stated that he  had to be at the work place sometimes throughout the  day and night  and he had to remain in the company of some drivers who had  been  sometimes in drunken condition at about  one o’ clock or two o’  clock  

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in the night.           It is also alleged that the drivers who had been  present at the work place had been having non-vegetarian food.  He  also complained that he had to work even on Sundays.   He further  stated that one day he could leave the work place at 8 o’ clock in the  evening and all the restaurants were closed and that he reported the  matter to the present appellant.

       There is absolutely no averment in the alleged suicide note that  the present appellant had caused any harm to him or was in any way  responsible for delay in paying salary to deceased Pranab Kumar Nag.    It seems that the deceased was very much dissatisfied with the  working conditions at the work place.  But,   it may also be noticed  that the deceased after his transfer in 1999 had never joined the office  at 160 B.L. Saha Road, Kolkata and had absented himself for a period  of two years and that the suicide took place on 16.2.2001.   It cannot  be said that the present appellant had in any way instigated the  deceased to commit suicide or he was responsible for the suicide of  Pranab Kumar Nag.     An offence under Section 306 IPC would stand  only if there is an abetment for the commission of the crime.     The  parameters of the "abetment" have been stated in Section 107 of the  Indian Penal Code.   Section 107 says that a person abets the doing of  a thing, who instigates any person to do that thing; or engages with  one or more other person or persons in any conspiracy for the doing of  that thing, if an act or illegal omission takes place in pursuance of that  conspiracy, or the person should have intentionally aided   any act or  illegal omission.   The explanation to Section 107 says that any willful  misrepresentation or willful concealment of a material fact which he is  bound to disclose, may also come within the contours of "abetment".

       In the suicide note, except referring to the name of the appellant  at two places, there is no reference of any act or incidence whereby  the appellant herein is alleged to have committed any willful act or  omission or intentionally aided or instigated the deceased Pranab  Kumar Nag in committing the act of suicide.  There is no case that the  appellant has played any part or any role in any conspiracy, which  ultimately instigated or resulted in the commission of suicide by  deceased Pranab Kumar Nag.

       Apart from the suicide note, there is no allegation made by the  complainant that the appellant herein in any way was harassing his  brother, Pranab Kumar Nag.   The case registered against the  appellant is without any factual foundation.   The contents of the  alleged suicide note do not in any way make out the offence against  the appellant.  The prosecution initiated against the appellant would  only result in sheer harassment to the appellant without any fruitful  result.    In our opinion, the learned Single Judge seriously erred in  holding that the First Information Report against the appellant  disclosed the elements of a cognizable offence.   There was absolutely  no ground to proceed against the appellant herein.   We find that this  is a fit case where the extraordinary power under Section 482 of the  Code of Criminal Procedure is to be invoked.  We quash the criminal  proceedings initiated against the appellant and accordingly allow the  appeal.