Patel Babubhai Manohardas vs State Of Gujarat 2025 INSC 322 - Abetment Of Suicide - Handwriting Expert Evidence -Poisoning
Indian Penal Code 1860 - Section 306 - Abetment to commit suicide involves a mental process of instigating a person or intentionally aiding a person in the doing of a thing. Without a positive proximate act on the part of the accused to instigate or aid in committing suicide, conviction cannot be sustained. Besides, in order to convict a person under Section 306 IPC, there has to be a clear mens rea to commit the offence. (Para 22)
Criminal Trial - Expert’s evidence as to handwriting is opinion evidence. It can rarely, if ever, take the place of substantive evidence. Before acting on such opinion evidence, it is necessary to see if it is corroborated either by clear direct evidence or by circumstantial evidence. - having due regard to the imperfect nature of the science of identification of hand-writing, the approach of the court should be one of caution. Reasons for the opinion must be carefully probed and examined. In an appropriate case, corroboration may be sought. Where the reasons for the opinion are convincing and there is no reliable evidence throwing a doubt, uncorroborated testimony of a handwriting expert may be accepted. - when the trial court chose to rely on the report of the handwriting expert, it ought to have examined the handwriting expert in order to give an opportunity to the accused to cross-examine the said expert. (Para 42-44)
Criminal Trial - In a case of death due to consumption or administering of poison, be it homicidal or suicidal, recovery of the trace of such poison is crucial. (Para 39)
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