Supreme Court: The bench of V Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal, JJ has granted bail to a 74-years-old advocate in a case relating to abetment of suicide, after a man shot himself dead following a monetary dispute.
In the case at hand, the deceased had a monetary transaction to the tune of Rs. 6.50 Crores with the appellant’s son and two others. Around 11 cases were registered against the deceased under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, who in turn had also lodged 2-3 cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 against the 3 persons.
When on 16-11-2022, the deceased shot himself from his licensed pistol, an FIR was lodged by is brother against the 3 persons as well as the petitioner simply because he was the advocate for his son in the Section 138 NI Act matters, even though he has not been named in the suicide note. In the hand written note, the deceased has actually named the appellant’s son and two others as primarily responsible. He has also stated expressly that the appellant threatened him.
Therefore, it was noticed by the Supreme Court that this is not a case where the continued incarceration of the appellant was necessary, especially after filing of the final report. The Court, hence, set aside the order passed by the Rajasthan High Court and directed the appellant to be released on bail on such terms and conditions as imposed by the trial court.
[Ramesh Chand Tiwari v. State of Rajasthan, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 403, decided on 11-04-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioner(s): Namit Saxena, AOR; Nitin Jain, Adv.; Awnish Maithani, Adv.; Shivam Raghuvanshi, Adv.; Shiksha Ashra, Adv.;
For Respondent(s): Amitabh Kumar Chaubey, A.A.G.; Anand Shankar, AOR.