Supreme court makes harsh term to Rathore difficult

Tennis player Ruchika Girhotra, molested by former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore in 1990, committed suicide three years later because of the harassment her family and friends faced after they decided to take on the IPS officer. But abetment to suicide could not be proved in the CBI court and Rathore was let off with a mild six months in jail.

Ruchika’s family has now decided to move the supreme court (SC), seeking a harsher punishment. But proving the abetment-to-suicide charge won’t be easy, since SC has been of late lenient towards those convicted under section 306 IPC.

Last month, it stressed on the time lapse between a suicide and the alleged insinuations or abhorrent acts that caused it to acquit a man of abetting his wife’s suicide, although the time lapse in this case was only three months.

SC said if the woman, Deepika, had been so perturbed by the act of her husband marrying another woman, Anita, and bringing her home that she felt impelled to commit suicide, she would have done so on the very day, since her annoyance or dismay with life would have been at its pinnacle at that point.

Section 306 IPC says whoever abets a suicide shall be punished with imprisonment up to 10 years in jail and fine.

On April 6 last year, SC acquitted a “pervert” man of the charge of driving his wife and children to suicide. Its basis was her suicide note, which read, “I desired to kill you along with us [kids], but no, if you [husband] have any sense of shame you will die as a result of the sequence of events. But it does not make a difference to a shameless person, because these abuses will sound as correct if you realise your capacity. You have not spent even eight days in eight years in peace with me. You are responsible for the death of these children.”

The man had been convicted under section 306 IPC by the Punjab and Haryana high court, but SC acquitted him saying in cases of alleged “abetment of suicide, there must be proof of direct or indirect acts of incitement to the commission of suicide”.

The mere fact that the man treated his wife with cruelty is not enough, it ruled.