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Gauhati HC sets aside life term of woman accused of killing one-month-old daughter, rejects confession
The Gauhati High Court has acquitted a woman sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly murdering her one-month-old daughter
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The Gauhati High Court has acquitted a woman sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly murdering her one-month-old daughter, ruling that her confessional statement was inadmissible as it was recorded in the presence of a policewoman and that the trial court should have considered the possibility of postpartum psychosis.
In its order issued on October 6, a divisional bench of justices Michael Jothankhuma and Rajesh Mazumdar said that the trial court should also have considered postpartum psychosis, a temporary condition witnessed in some women soon after childbirth, which can lead them to lose their sense of reality and pose risks to the newborn in some cases.
“Conviction of the appellant only on the basis of the confessional statement is not sustainable, as the confessional statement is inadmissible in evidence, the appeal succeeds. As the Prosecution has failed to prove the guilt of the appellant beyond reasonable doubt, the appellant is acquitted of the charges framed against her under Section 302 IPC (murder) and Section 201 IPC (criminal conspiracy),” the order, which HT has seen, read.
“Consequently, the impugned judgment dated September 12, 2023 passed by the court of sessions judge, Sivasagar...is set aside. The appellant should be released immediately from judicial custody, if not wanted in any other case,” it added.
The present case dates back to October 15, 2016, when the husband of the accused filed an FIR at Disangmukh police station in Assam’s Sibsagar district, stating that his daughter, who was one month and eight days old, had gone missing from the previous night.
According to the police, during interrogation, the woman, who was with the child and her two-year-old son on the night of the incident, confessed to having murdered her daughter and disposed of the body in the Dikhow River.
During the trial, the husband of the woman denied giving a statement that she had confessed to other villagers about throwing her daughter in the river. Other witnesses also stated that they were told by the police about the woman’s confession.
The HC said that the only basis for charging the woman with murder was her confession statement made in front of a judicial magistrate. It was found that the statement was recorded in the presence of a policewoman.
“The same makes the said confessional statement inadmissible as evidence, as the accused cannot be said to be completely free from police pressure or influence at the time of making her confession,” the HC order read.
The court also found that the woman was not aware that the confession was being recorded. The body of the infant was never recovered despite a thorough search.
The court also stated that while the woman confessed to having killed her daughter during the hearing on sentence in the trial court, it can’t be stated to be additional evidence since the confession in court was not made under oath.
The court stated that even if the confession statement, in which the woman stated that she was mentally unwell after the birth of her daughter and didn’t like the child, could be relied on, the present case could be one of postpartum psychosis (PPP).
Citing studies in medical journals, the court mentioned that PPP occurs in one or two women in a thousand after childbirth and “can place the life of the mother and infant in danger”. The symptoms of PPP can include delusions, hallucinations and severe mood swings.
“In the present case, though we are not required to go into the issue of whether the appellant suffered from P.P.P., the same should have been considered by the learned Trial Court, prior to convicting the appellant under Section 302 and 201 IPC,” the order read.
“PPP is a clinical diagnosis seen in some women after childbirth. It is the most severe of the three such conditions women may witness after delivery. The other two are postpartum blues and postpartum depression,” Nahid Suraiya Islam, a Guwahati-based psychiatrist, said.
“It happens due to hormonal changes during childbirth. The condition leads to patients losing touch with reality and suffer from hallucinations, delusions and chances of self-harm or the baby is significant. It is a temporary condition and can be treated with medications and disappears after few weeks,” Islam added
