Karnataka High Court Rules Scolding Child and Retaining Ball Does Not Amount to Abetment of Suicide

The Karnataka High Court has held that merely refusing to return a child’s volleyball and asking him to bring his father after a glass pane was broken does not legally constitute abetment of suicide under Section 305 read with Section 107 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A Division Bench comprising Justice H.P. Sandesh and Justice B. Pramod delivered the ruling while dismissing an appeal against the acquittal of two shopkeepers in a minor boy's suicide case. The case stemmed from a February 2019 incident where a minor boy, Master Kiran, was playing volleyball near his house when the ball accidentally entered a nearby shop and broke a glass pane. The shopkeepers allegedly scolded the child, refused to return the ball, and instructed him to bring his father to pay for the damages. Distressed by the confrontation, the child later died by suicide. The trial court had acquitted the accused in January 2025, which was subsequently appealed by the child's father. Dismissing the appeal, the High Court observed that prosecution evidence failed to establish any direct causal link, intent, or positive act of incitement by the accused that directly drove the child to take his own life. The court stressed that while the event was deeply unfortunate, routine scolding or demanding parental accountability for broken property does not fulfill the statutory requirements of criminal abetment.