Bombay High Court rules loan demands not abetment to suicide
The Bombay High Court has clarified that just asking someone to repay a loan doesn't count as encouraging them to take their own life under Indian law.
This came after the court dropped charges against Amit More and five others, who were accused of driving schoolteacher Dilip Mande to suicide in Kolhapur back in 2022.
The judges said there was no proof of any deliberate push or conspiracy from the accused.
No evidence accused provoked Dilip Mande
Mande had borrowed money and was reportedly pressured for repayment before he died by suicide.
His family filed a complaint, but the court found no real evidence that the accused actually provoked him.
As a bench of Justice Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale put it, simply following up on a loan "The pure and simple act of demand or follow up with the creditor for return or repayment of loan cannot by any stretch of imagination be termed as an act of abetment,".