A mother, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly strangulating her baby hours after her birth as she was a girl, has got relief from the Supreme Court which acquitted her by saying that it was “totally unnatural” for the woman to kill her own child.
The apex court, while allowing the appeal filed by the woman challenging the March 2010 judgement of the Delhi High Court upholding her conviction and sentence, said there was no “clear evidence on record” to hold her guilty of the offence.
A bench of justices Mohan M Shantanagoudar and R Subhash Reddy set aside the judgments of the trial court and Delhi high court ruling that the conviction by the courts below was based on “presumptions without any basis.”
The incident happened in 2007 when the appellant delivered a baby girl at around 12:30 pm. It was the case of the prosecution that the mother killed the baby by strangulation since the baby was a girl. Post-mortem was conducted on August 26, 2007 and the doctor opined that the cause of death was asphyxia due to ante-mortem strangulation. The mother was tried for murder and was convicted by trial court in 2009 which sentenced her to life imprisonment. The conviction was upheld by the high court.
The Supreme Court stated that the conviction of the mother was based on circumstantial evidence. “..if totality of evidence on record is considered, motive is not established and it is totally unnatural for the appellant-mother to kill her own baby by strangulation”, the court noted
{{/usCountry}}The Supreme Court stated that the conviction of the mother was based on circumstantial evidence. “..if totality of evidence on record is considered, motive is not established and it is totally unnatural for the appellant-mother to kill her own baby by strangulation”, the court noted
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