MUMBAI: The sessions court in Dindoshi has acquitted a 53-year-old woman, Ruksanabano Ansari, accused of killing her two-year-old granddaughter by throwing her off their sixth-floor apartment, saying there was no direct or circumstantial evidence to show that she had committed the crime.
On September 28, 2019, the two-year-old girl was suffering from vomiting and cough, and she did not sleep till 4am. At around 6.30am, neighbours informed the family that the girl’s body was lying on the ground floor. The child’s mother, Saniya Ejaz Ansari, 23, registered a complaint at the Kurar police station after this, claiming her mother-in-law had killed her daughter as she was unhappy with her for delivering a girl child; she also gave preference to her sister-in-law’s son over her daughter.
The prosecution submitted that the complainant’s in-laws stayed separately due the conflict between her and her mother-in-law, and they came to their daughter-in-law’s house two days before the incident.
The additional sessions judge Nandkishore More held that the investigating officer could not collect any physical or forensic evidence to substantiate the allegations made in the FIR and the statement of the girl’s mother. Residents did not hear the cries of the two-year-old either when she fell on the rough surface of the ground, the court said.
The court also reprimanded the investigating officer for “misdirecting” himself and conducting the investigation “only on the basis of the informant’s statement”. The officer did not consider the possibility of the child’s mother being a suspect, the court said. The investigating officer admitted that “neither he had made enquiry about the antecedents of the informant nor inquired about the mental condition of the informant at the relevant time,” the court observed in the order dated September 30, acquitting the 53-year-old woman of murder charges.
{{/usCountry}}The court also reprimanded the investigating officer for “misdirecting” himself and conducting the investigation “only on the basis of the informant’s statement”. The officer did not consider the possibility of the child’s mother being a suspect, the court said. The investigating officer admitted that “neither he had made enquiry about the antecedents of the informant nor inquired about the mental condition of the informant at the relevant time,” the court observed in the order dated September 30, acquitting the 53-year-old woman of murder charges.
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