HC acquits husband for abetting wife to suicide

Mere demand of some article of an insignificant nature on a stray occasion by a husband from his wife does not amount to cruelty or harassment, the Bombay High Court has held while acquitting a man accused of abetting his wife’s suicide.

“Harassment contemplated under Section 498(A) of the Indian Penal Code has to be of a persistent nature and is required to be in relation with an article or property of significant value,” Justice P D Kode while upholding the acquittal of one Madhukar Kambari.

Madhukar was accused of harassing and abetting the suicide of his wife Vandana. The couple had married in May, 1995 but in November the same year, Vandana committed suicide by setting herself ablaze.

According to prosecution, Vandana had on two occasions complained to her father that she was assaulted at her matrimonial house after she failed to comply with her husband’s demand of bringing hens from her father’s house.