Karnataka High Court Grants Interim Relief To BJP MP K. Sudhakar In Abetment To Suicide Case

The Karnataka High Court on Monday granted interim relief to BJP Member of Parliament K Sudhakar and restrained the police from taking any coercive steps against him in connection with the FIR registered against him on charges of abetting the suicide of a driver employed with the Zilla Panchayat in Chikkaballapura district.

Justice M.I. Arun passed the interim order on the petition filed by Sudhakar seeking to quash the FIR registered against him. The court said, “Respondent no 1 shall not take any coercive steps against the petitioner. The petitioner shall cooperate with the investigation. Any chargesheet/final report to be filed by the state shall be done with permission of this court.”

Senior Advocate Prabhuling K Navadgi, appearing for the petitioner, referred to the complaint lodged by the wife of the deceased and the death note and argued that “I (petitioner) have had no contact with this person (deceased). Manjunath and Nagesh ask him for some money. I do not know them. It is an unfortunate incident, but nobody is safe if this course is adopted by the state government.”

The deceased, M Babu, had died by suicide on August 7. In the death note, he has mentioned that one Nagesh and Manjunath represented to him that by using their influence with the petitioner, who was a Minister in the  Karnataka State Cabinet could procure him a government job. This they promised in the year 2021. Then they demanded Rs 40 lakh as a bribe to be paid to the petitioner. The death note revealed that the deceased paid Rs 25 lakh to Nagesh and Manjunath.

Thereafter, he could not pay Rs 15 lakh, and the said Nagesh and Manjunath were harassing the deceased. Thereafter, the deceased is said to have lost Rs 11 lakh in online gaming. Depressed by all these events, he committed suicide, and in his death note blamed Nagesh, Manjunath and the petitioner herein. The deceased had died by hanging himself from a tree at the Deputy Commissioner's office premises

Navadgi submitted that the alleged death note reveals that the petitioner never had contact with the deceased, and probably the deceased was misled by Nagesh and Manjunath. It was submitted that reading of the death note reveals that there is no direct or indirect instigation by the petitioner; he was not in close proximity to the commission of suicide, and there was no mens rea to abet the commission of suicide against him. Further, the death note does not reveal that the money was demanded by the petitioner or paid to the petitioner.

Further, the petitioner has not received a single paise from the deceased, and the allegations made against him are false.

Special Public Prosecutor B A Beliappa for the state contended that the case is still at the investigation stage and it is not a fit case wherein the investigation can be stayed since the name of the petitioner surfaces in the complaint and the death note itself.

On considering the averments the court said it would pass a reasoned order later and passed the operative order.

Appearance: Senior Advocate Prabhuling K Navadgi for advocates CN Mahadeshwar, Kishore for petitioner

SPP B A Belliappa for R1