No convictions for attempted suicide in city

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: There are 511 sections in the Indian Penal Code but one of them, Section 309, hasn’t seen an accused being convicted under it at least in the last five years in Mumbai.

Senior police officials, however, aren’t in the least ashamed of this track record. Reason: Section 309 deals with punishment for those who have attempted suicide. “The law says they can be imprisoned for up to a year but one has to keep in mind that the accused are also victims who take this extreme step only when they have abandoned all hope and don’t see any further point in living,’’ a senior official said.

A total of 119 persons have attempted suicide in the city since 2004. “We have filed chargesheets in almost all the cases and follow up prosecution in the court, “crime branch chief Rakesh Maria said.

What’s Sec 309?
Whoever attempts to commit suicide and commits any act towards the commission of such an offence shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine or both

No point in torturing tortured souls: Police
Mumbai: Despite the over-100 attempted suicides in Mumbai since 2004, police officials said, not a single person got anything more than a “technical’’ conviction (presence in court till it gave over for the day), as even the court took a sympathetic view of the “crime’’.

The officials admitted they were on the court’s side in this. “When people are so depressed that they want to end their lives, why should we put them under more pressure and through more trouble? What they have done is illegal but there’s no point in torturing a person who is already feeling tortured,’’ an officer said. Psychiatrists say the most common reason for attempting suicide is depression arising out of personal or professional problems; there have also been cases in which terminally ill patients have tried to kill themselves.

CR and Nagpada Police Hospital consulting psychiatrist Y A Matcheswalla segregates cases into two types: those arising out of a personality disorder and those triggered by some emotional factor. Citing the recent example of several people attempting and committing suicide after hearing of Andhra CM YSR Rajeshekhar Reddy’s death in a chopper crash, Matcheswalla said emotional factors were common reason for suicides. “In case of personality disorder, the victims do not really want to kill themselves but attempt suicide to seek attention. Those who are serious about killing themselves are in a state of depression,’’ he said.

Ex-IPS officer-turned-lawyer Y P Singh said the SC in 1994 had ruled Section 309 of the IPC unconstitutional (P Rathinam versus Union of India). “It deserves to be effaced from the statute book to humanise our penal laws,’’ the judgment had said.

THE ANTI-SUICIDE SQUAD
Taking note of two suicide attempts at Mantralaya and another near Vidhan Bhavan last year, the city police formed an Anti-Suicide Squad (ASS). The ASS, comprising 15 constables (five of them women), is the brainchild of DCP Vishwas Nangre Patil.

The Times of India, September 16, 2009