MUMBAI, INDIA, August 16, 2006: Can a person charged with the murder of his wife in a case of dowry-related death also be charged for abetment to suicide? Given the heinous nature of the crime, the Bombay High Court says a trial court has the right to frame two distinctly contrary charges and have the accused husband or his family defend both these charges. The judgment passed by Justice Dilip Bhosale this week gives police flexibility in dealing with dowry deaths which are often difficult to prove as murders. Framing charges by a trial court is the first step that decides what the accused has to be tried for. Even the charge of abettment to suicide, a lesser offense in comparison to murder, is usually difficult to prove in bride-burning cases as the circumstantial evidence left behind is often weak and witnesses are few. The judgment is based on the reasoning that given the difficulty in establishing guilt in dowry deaths, any effort at invoking as many alternate charges as possible cannot be discouraged in such social crimes.
The state, through its prosecutors relying on a 2004 Supreme Court ruling, pointed out that since courts have the power to convict a person for abettment to suicide in a murder and wife beating case, trial courts cannot be faulted for framing alternate charges. Justice Bhosale noted that while it was true that an accused could either have committed murder or abetted suicide, not both, it was important to test the severity of cruelty to a wife that could have driven her to suicide if the murder charge is not established. The court said the motive for committing murder and the reasons to drive a wife to commit suicide in dowry death cases could be the same. The judge directed, “If facts and circumstances demand, the trial court should frame alternate charges to keep the accused on guard and make him aware that there could be a conviction for abettment to suicide even if the charge of murder is not proved.”