Supreme Court grants bail to 74-year-old lawyer accused of abetting suicide

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to a 74-year-old advocate accused in an abetment of suicide case [Ramesh Chand Tiwari vs State of Rajasthan]. .A bench of Justices V Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal observed that since the accused's son and two others were expressly named in the hand-written note of the deceased for being primarily responsible, his incarceration was no longer necessary."In the hand written note, the victim has actually named the appellant’s son and two others as primarily responsible. He has also stated expressly that the appellant threatened him. Therefore, this is not a case where the continued incarceration of the appellant is necessary, especially after filing of the final report," the Court said,The advocate's appeal was, therefore, allowed, and the Rajasthan High Court order from February this year denying bail, was set aside. The accused was directed to be released on bail subject to conditions to be imposed by the trial court..The charge against the appellant and three others was that the victim died by suicide due to the pressure exerted and threats issued towards returning ₹6.50 crores owed to them by the deceased.Four accused were taken into custody on November 17, 2022 and the final report was filed a month later. The Jaipur bench of the High Court denied bail to the appellant leading to the present appeal before the top court. The appellant stated before the Supreme Court that he had no criminal antecedents, was not a flight risk, and had been a legal practitioner.The Court accepted the same and granted bail to the appellant..Advocates Namit Saxena, Nitin Jain, Awnish Maithani, Shivam Raghuvanshi, and Shiksha Ashra appeared for the appellant. Additional Advocate General Amitabh Kumar Chaubey and advocate Anand Shankar represented the State of Rajasthan.[Read order]