23-01-10. Gujarat High Court on the S G highway in Ahmedabad. Photo by Kevin Antao.
The police booked the partner for abetment of suicide under section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Seeking quashing of the FIR, the accused told the high court that he had neither instigated nor done anything to drive his former partner to suicide. After his death, his father lodged an FIR with Varachha police, accusing his son’s partner of abetting the suicide. He alleged that his son had contracted HIV through the relationship and that the accused had threatened him. The father also cited messages found on his son’s mobile phone, which purportedly contained threats from the accused. Four years after the incident, the victim’s father filed an affidavit stating that he had no objection to quashing the criminal proceedings against the accused. The state govt, however, opposed the petition and urged the HC to reject the compromise at the threshold.
The case dates back to Jan 21, 2022, when a 25-year-old man from Surat’s Varachha area was found hanging at his residence.
On the morning of his death, he had told his parents that he was HIV-positive.
His family had learnt about a week earlier that he was suffering from depression, had suicidal tendencies and was involved in a same-sex relationship.
Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court quashed a case of abetment of suicide against a man accused of transmitting HIV to his homosexual partner and sending him threatening messages. The court observed that the allegations, even if accepted at face value, did not make out an offence of abetment of suicide. Justice P M Raval, after considering the allegations and the investigation, stated, “If the facts on hand are considered, more particularly if the allegations in the FIR are taken on the face of it, no case of abetment is made out, inasmuch as the deceased was a homosexual and had contracted HIV and has thus committed suicide. The court also noted that the investigating agency had acknowledged that the threatening messages had been sent by the man himself between two mobile phones linked to him. He had used different names while communicating.