Court case(2002) 5 SCC 371

The appellant Sanju quarrelled with his brother-in-law Chander Bhushan on 25 July 1998. In the heat of the quarrel he abused the deceased and told him to 'go and die'. Two days later, on 27 July 1998, the deceased, a man who drank heavily, committed suicide, leaving a note that named the appellant. The police charged the appellant with abetment of suicide under s. 306 IPC. The appellant asked the High Court to quash the charge under s. 482 CrPC; the High Court refused and he appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court quashed the charge. Instigation means to goad, urge forward, provoke, incite or encourage a person to do an act. Words uttered in a fit of anger during a quarrel cannot be taken to have been spoken with the intention that the other person should actually kill himself. The gap of two days between the quarrel and the death, and the deceased's own habit of heavy drinking, showed that the suicide was not the direct result of anything the appellant said. There was no material to show the mens rea needed for abetment, so the prosecution was an abuse of process.