Bansal’s Suicide Note Is Strong Evidence, Why There Is No FIR Yet?

Why the Delhi Police has not registered an FIR against CBI officials under the charge of abetment to suicide?

Yes, the suicide note is the most crucial evidence in the investigation into any suicide case, according to some senior investigators.

On Tuesday morning, former bureaucrat BK Bansal and his son Yogesh Bansal were found hanging from the ceiling fan in their apartment in Delhi. The police recovered two separate suicide notes from the crime scene, one written by Bansal and the other by his son.

In the suicide note, as reported by The Quint, Bansal raises serious allegations against the CBI. He not only mentions the names of the CBI officials who allegedly tortured his wife and daughter but also demands an investigation against them.

The suicide note is enough ground for the police to register a case under Dying Declaration-Section 32(1) of the Indian Evidence Act and abetment to suicide — Section 306 of Indian Penal Code.

So far, an inquest proceeding as per the CrPC is being conducted by the Delhi police and an internal inquiry has been initiated by the CBI.

What are Sections 32(1) and 306?

According to legal experts, the police should have registered an FIR under the abetment of suicide (Section 306 of CrPC) to begin the probe. What does Section 306 of the CrPC say?

If any person commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

The apex court, in its decision in PV Radhakrishna vs State of Karnataka held that the principle on which a dying declaration is admitted in evidence is indicated in legal maxim, nemo morturus procsumitur mentri (A man will not meet his maker with a lie in his mouth). Information lodged by a person, who died subsequently, relating to the cause of his death, is admissible as evidence under this clause.

This is what the Dying Declaration-Section 32 (1) of Indian Evidence Act says:

When the statement is made by a person as to the cause of his death, or as to any of the circumstances of the transaction which resulted in his death, in cases in which the cause of that person’s death comes into question. Such statements are relevant whether the person who made them was or was not, at the time when they were made, under expectation of death, and whatever may be the nature of the proceeding in which the cause of his death comes into question.

Authenticity of the Note and the Circumstances Under Which It Was Made

The suicide note is the most powerful evidence to convict the CBI officials mentioned in the note. However, the authenticity of the note and the circumstance in which the suicide was committed has to be investigated.

The police should first authenticate the suicide notes by finding out whether those were written by BK Bansal and his son. The police must also verify that they were not forced to write these suicide notes. They should also investigate whether or not someone murdered them and later hung them from the ceiling to make it look like a suicide. 

A senior investigating officer

The suicide note can be taken as his dying declaration after it is verified.

In the note, Bansal says, “(My wife and daughter) did not commit suicide, but were murdered by the CBI.”

Bansal was arrested by the CBI for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 9 lakh from a pharmaceutical company. His wife and daughter committed suicide in July, as result of which he was granted interim bail. On 30 August, he was out on a regular bail.

In the court, I said that Bansal’s son was suffering from depression after his mother’s and sister’s death. He had also developed suicidal tendencies. Hence, I argued that Bansal should be granted immediate bail on the ground of his son’s health.

Ramesh Gupta, Lawyer of BK Bansal

Interestingly, according to sources in the CBI, it is very unusual that the sensitive post of a DIG in the Anti-corruption department of CBI is handed over to an IRS officer. DIG Sanjiv Gautam, who has been named in the suicide note, is an IRS officer and was posted as a customs officer before he joined the CBI.

Also, Rekha Sangwan, one of the two lady CBI officers named in the note, had faced a departmental inquiry for accepting bribe. She was given a clean chit later.