Ex-fiance may face trial in Miss India winner Nafisa Joseph's 2004 suicide as HC rejects discharge plea

The Bombay high court has refused to discharge businessman Gautam Khanduja in the 2004 abetment-to-suicide case involving model and 1997 Miss India winner Nafisa Joseph, saying there were sufficient grounds to proceed against him. Joseph died by suicide after Khanduja allegedly called off their marriage.

A single-judge bench of justice MM Sathaye rejected Khanduja’s plea on Thursday, observing that the question of whether the allegations amounted to abetment could be decided only at trial. “It is true that strong suspicion cannot take the place of proof, but that can only be decided at the stage of trial,” the court said.

Khanduja, 54, a Pali Hill resident who manufactures and exports auto spare parts, was 31 when he began dating Joseph, then 24, in 2003. The couple got engaged in May 2004.

According to police, Khanduja had told Joseph that he had divorced his wife, Naushin Khan. Trouble arose when his mother allegedly told Joseph that he was not divorced. Joseph then insisted on seeing the divorce papers, but Khanduja refused to show her the decree and eventually called off the wedding, citing her short temper.

Joseph had two previous broken engagements. Her third failed engagement allegedly prompted her to take her life on July 29, 2004, according to the FIR registered against Khanduja under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC. The trial court rejected his plea for discharge on August 24, 2005.

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Khanduja later approached the HC through Dipesh Mehta and Associates. His counsel, senior advocate Ashok Mundargi, argued that the charge sheet did not attribute any act of instigation, threat, coercion, humiliation or intentional aid to Khanduja. His refusal to marry Joseph, he argued, was not sufficient to attract Section 306.

Assistant public prosecutor Manisha R Tidke opposed the plea, saying the couple was engaged, their marriage date had been fixed and invitation cards had been distributed. His last-minute refusal to marry, she argued, left Joseph feeling humiliated and fearing disrepute to herself and her family.

“Therefore, the applicant was directly responsible for her suicide,” Tidke argued.

“It appears that the parties knew each other’s past. Whether the applicant’s refusal to marry and non-supply of divorce papers proved to be the last straw that broke the camel’s back will have to be decided at the trial,” justice Sathaye said.