NRI doctor arraigned for murdering mother

An Indian-American doctor was arraigned on charges of aggravated murder and ordered jailed without bond by a court in Cincinnati.

An Indian-American doctor, who is charged with killing her mother, was arraigned on charges of aggravated murder and ordered jailed without bond by a court in Cincinnati.

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Malar Balasubramanian, who was hospitalised after her arrest on July 27, made her first appearance in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on Monday, a media report said on Tuesday.

She did not enter a plea to the charges, so Judge Dennis Helmick entered a not guilty plea on her behalf, as it was a standard in all murder cases, the Cincinnati Enquirer said.

Twenty eight-year-old Balasubramanian, disoriented and half-dressed, was found driving a car by local police on July 27. Police recovered the body of her mother Saroja from the back seat of her car.

She was hospitalised soon after her arrest, possibly for overmedicating herself, police said.

Balasubramanian, who faces 20 years in prison if convicted, did not speak in court, the report said.

According to police, Balasubramanian, a pediatrician, in an e-mail to her sister and brother, said that she'd decided to kill herself, but that she didn't want to leave them alone with their mother, Saroja, 53.

"I'm sorry for what I did to Amma," she wrote, according to a police search warrant. "I am. But I'm glad she's not here to hurt us anymore."

She said, she wanted to protect her younger siblings from their abusive mother, police said.