Representative image for an arrest.
Credit: iStock Photo
Surat: Days after a man ended his life by consuming pesticide in Gujarat's Surat city, police have arrested his former wife and her lover on the abetment charge based on his "suicide note" and video messages in which he named them, police said on Wednesday.
The victim took the extreme step on May 4 and the accused duo was arrested on May 12, they said.
Businessman Jaideep Satodiya (28) committed suicide allegedly after being subjected to mental and physical torture by his divorced wife, her lover and around ten other men and women, an official of city's Utran police station said.
"Based on the suicide note and three video messages recorded on his mobile phone, which were of a total 54 minutes in length, the police arrested accused Sheetal Rathwa (24) and Mohsin Memon (36), five days after an FIR for abetment of suicide was registered," he said.
In the videos message recorded before ending his life, an emotionally overwhelmed victim described his ordeals and appealed to the government to make a law to protect men from harassment by women so that they do not have to die to prove their point.
In the video message, he asked whether men have to prove by dying that they were right, and requested for a law whereby they don't have to resort to the extreme step.
In his complaint, Mansukh Satodiya, the father of the deceased, said his son married Rathwa on October 30, 2023, and domestic discord erupted between them soon after. She would quarrel with Jaideep and other family members over petty matters, it said.
The accused woman would threaten the family of slapping cases of domestic violence and dowry harassment against them, and started living separately, he said. They finally divorced on February 15, 2024, it added.
On the evening of May 2, Satodiya returned home with injury marks on his body. When asked about it, he said he was thrashed by his former wife, her lover and other friends accompanying her.
On May 4, when the complainant (victim's father) went to a marriage function at his native town, his brother called and informed him that Jaideep died by consuming poison.
They later recovered a suicide note and the mobile phone of the deceased containing three videos of a total 54 minutes length in which he described his ordeals at length and sought action against his ex-wife and others named by him.
Based on the suicide note and videos, his father approached the police, which registered an FIR under sections 108 (abetment of suicide), 118 (causing grievous hurt), 351 (criminal intimidation), 296 (obscene acts), 54 (abettor present when crime committed) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
In the video, he questioned the behaviour of his ex-wife and said he has lost all the courage to remain alive.