Scratch Mine, I’ll Scratch Yours: Cops Shield CBI in Bansal Case?

Delhi Police source: The suicide note is not enough evidence to book CBI officials with abetment to suicide.

The suicide of the entire Bansal family sent shockwaves across the country. On 26 September, former government official BK Bansal, who was charged in a graft case, committed suicide with his son in his Delhi apartment. According to a very senior Delhi Police officer, the suicide note written by Bansal does not constitute strong enough evidence to book CBI officials with abetment to suicide (306 IPC).

The suicide note of BK Bansal doesn’t prove abetment to suicide because nowhere does he refer to immediate provocation or instigation to suicide. Harassment cannot be the grounds to charge the alleged CBI officials with 306 IPC. 

Senior Official, Delhi Police

The official added that Bansal’s wife and daughter didn’t mention anything about being harassed by the CBI officials. Hence, the preliminary investigation done by the police is hinting towards ‘harassment’ instead of ‘abetment to suicide’. Sources also added that in case of harassment, the CBI can take departmental action against the alleged officials, and no FIR or criminal case would be registered against them.

But hang on! What more do police need to prove abetment to suicide? In the suicide note, Bansal has mentioned:

DIG Sanjeev Gautam ne ek lady officer ko kaha tha ki itna torture karna Maa aur beti ko, ki marne layak ho jaye. Maine DIG se bohot request ki lekin usne kaha ki teri wife aur beti ko agar zinda laash nahi bana diya toh maine CBI ka DIG Sanjeev Gautam nahi hu. (DIG Sanjeev Gautam told one lady officer to torture mother and daughter so much that they are as good as dead. I requested DIG to spare us but he said that if he didn’t turn them into vegetables, then he wouldn’t be DIG Sanjeev Gautam.)

Is this not instigation enough to drive a person to commit suicide? Would Delhi Police be so cavalier had CBI officials not been implicated? Why are the cops so tight-lipped? Why have they not sent the suicide note to forensics to examine the handwriting yet?

Interestingly, another senior Delhi Police officer, when asked about the former Haryana Minister Gopal Kanda and AAP MLA Sharad Chauhan’s abetment to suicide cases, clearly stated that ‘those were politically motivated cases’ and might not stand in a court of law.

In the Kanda case, the air hostess Geetika Sharma in her suicide note alleged harassment by the minister, but there was no sign of immediate provocation or abetment.

The AAP MLA Chauhan case too seems to be the outcome of the tiff between the Delhi Police and Delhi government, seeing as Chauhan was charged with abetment to suicide even though the case happened after the Bansal case.

Does this mean only political pressure can motivate cops to do their duty?

Technically speaking, Bansal’s suicide note lacks abetment and focuses only on the harassment bit. Hence, it is unlikely that the Delhi Police will register a case under ‘abetment to suicide’ which might not stand in the court.  

Official, Delhi Police

So how does the Indian Penal Code define abetment to suicide (306)?

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.

But the word ‘abetment’ is not so well-defined here. It is defined under section 107 IPC, which says:

[...] Instigates any person to do that thing; or Whoever, either prior to or at the time of the commission of an act, does anything in order to facilitate the commission of that act, and thereby facilitate the commission thereof, is said to aid the doing of that act.  

Is CBI Protecting Its Men By Maintaining Silence?

In spite of repeated questions on the progress made by the CBI in the internal inquiry against their own officer in the Bansal suicide case, the agency has refused to divulge any information.

The CBI is inquiring into whether the named officers harassed the Bansal family or not. Right now, we have not reached any conclusion. Investigation is on.

Anil Sinha, CBI Director 

If during the CBI investigation it is established that the alleged officials did harass the Bansal family, then the punishment could be anything between a warning to suspension, say sources.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police is simply sitting on the case, searching for ways to bury it rather than investigating and pinning the culprits with appropriate charges.