Dalit employee death: Consistent attempts to tarnish image amount to abetting suicide, rules Karnataka HC

Ahead of his death, Vivek had filed internal complaints with the company’s committee for prevention of sexual harassment over bullying in the office regarding his sexual orientation. A day before his death, he had also filed a police complaint of caste discrimination under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989.

A deputy general manager in marketing, S B Malathy, 40; a vice-president in the human resources department, Kumar Suraj, 45; and an assistant manager in marketing, Nitish Kumar, 30, at Lifestyle International Private Limited have been named as accused in the abetment of suicide case filed by Vivek father Rajkumar Ramavadh, 67.

“If the accused by their alleged acts have played an active role in tarnishing or destroying the self esteem of a hypersensitive person or even their self respect, would definitely become guilty of commission of abetment to suicide if the accused have kept on irritating or annoying the deceased by words or deeds, provoking them and driving them to the wall, would also become circumstances that would be ingredients of abetment, all prima facie,” Justice M Nagaprasanna has ruled.

“The deceased, in the case at hand, is one belonging to the LGBT community. The sensitivity of them being ostracised pervades in their psyche. Therefore, such people must be treated with all love and affection and not point at the infirmity that they have no control of. If every citizen would treat such citizens with all love and care, as is done to a normal human, precious lives would not be lost,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the precious life of a youth is lost in the case at hand, all for the prima facie allegations of pointing at sexual orientation of the deceased. Therefore, it is for every citizen to bear this in mind while interacting with sensitive people. It is necessary that every one of us introspect on this issue, after all, every one of them are human beings and all are worthy of equality,” the HC stated.

Vivek, a 2012 NIFT graduate in design, joined Lifestyle International for a second stint in September 2022 as a manager after working in the firm earlier between 2014 and 2016. A few months into his second stint, Vivek is reported to have filed a complaint to the Internal Complaints Committee formed under Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal Act, 2013).

Vivek submitted his resignation on February 28, 2023 over the harassment (which was ruled as false by the internal committee) but sought to be reinstated in May 2023.

A day before his death on June 4, he had filed a police complaint, alleging caste abuse by his colleagues. The police registered a case under the SC/ST Act.

The three executives at Lifestyle International also approached the Karnataka HC for quashing the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 case registered against them. The HC imposed an interim stay on proceedings in investigations after it was argued that Vivek Raj’s reporting manager Malathy S B belongs to the Scheduled Tribe community and there cannot be an offence against her.

The case with regard to the quashing of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act complaint filed against the Lifestyle International executives registered on June 3 is still pending before the high court bench.