Bengaluru police have charged a woman with murder for throwing her four-year-old autistic child from the fourth floor of an apartment complex in Sampangirama Nagar in August this year.
According to the 193-page charge sheet filed by Rajesh R, inspector of the Sampangirama Nagar police station, the accused, Dr Sushma Bharadwaj, a dentist, killed her daughter as she didn’t want to sacrifice her professional and personal life.
HT has seen a copy of the charge sheet.
Balakrishna, the deceased child, was suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and as a result it had affected her speech and mental development. The accused said the child had to be taken for autism therapy regularly and this had affected her quality of life, according to the charge sheet.
In the charge sheet, the police officials also recorded the statement of 34 witnesses, including three eyewitnesses.
Sushma had also attempted abandoning Driti at the KSR Bengaluru railway station in July, a month before the murder. However, a railways official had alerted the police and rescued the child.
Disappointed that her attempt at abandoning the child had failed, the accused had decided to kill her by throwing her off the building.
On August 4, Sushma murdered the child by throwing her from the fourth floor of Advaith Ashraya Apartment, from approximately 50 feet, the charge sheet said.
{{/usCountry}}On August 4, Sushma murdered the child by throwing her from the fourth floor of Advaith Ashraya Apartment, from approximately 50 feet, the charge sheet said.
{{/usCountry}}The police have also submitted the CCTV footage of Sushma throwing the child from the apartment complex and also of her abandoning Driti at the KSR Bengaluru Railway station.
While Sushma told the police that she was depressed because of her daughter’s health, a medical examination by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) doctors concluded that she was fit and fine when she committed the murder. The medical report was also attached to the charge sheet.