Court acquits Woman accused of killing kids

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday acquitted a woman convicted by the Nashik sessions court in 1998, for allegedly killing her two children and trying to commit

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday acquitted a woman convicted by the Nashik sessions court in 1998, for allegedly killing her two children and trying to commit suicide.

HT Image

On August 29, 1998, an additional sessions judge at Nashik had convicted Radhabai Rokade, for killing her three-year-old son Dnyaneshwar and one-and-half-year-old daughter Rupali by throwing them into a well. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders and was also convicted for attempting to commit suicide, as she too jumped in the well, but survived.

The trial court had also accepted the prosecution’s claim that she took the step after being vexed with the ill-treatment by her husband and in-laws.

The division bench of justices SS Shinde and VG Bisht at the HC, however, found that there was no basis for believing that relations between Radhabai and her husband were strained or she was harassed at her matrimonial home. The judges reversed her conviction and set her free after finding several flaws in the prosecution’s case. Particularly, judges found fault with two star witnesses in the case. One of whom was an eyewitness, who had claimed to have seen the woman dragging her children towards the well.

The judges also noted that the eyewitness admitted that she was over 1 km away from the incident spot and therefore could not have witnessed it. The second witness admitted that the woman was unconscious when he tried to rescue her.

The incident had taken place on June 8, 1997 when it was raining heavily and the area around the well was muddy and slippery. The judges said the possibility of the three falling into the well accidentally cannot be ruled out