‘Devilishly devoured’: Jharkhand High Court upheld life term for mother killing her 2 sons

The bench added that no explanation has been furnished by the appellant relating to the entire episode, inviting another angle to the case, and all the components are aligned towards the guilt of the appellant.

Mother convicted for killing her sons

The petitioner-woman has challenged the 2021 trial court order of conviction and sentence for the offence punishable under Sections of murder, and has been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life.

Justices Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Arun Kumar Rai heard the matter on August 4.

The prosecution case was that the woman, along with her two sons aged 4 years and 2 years, had gone to the house of a man, and when she did not return. The informant, the husband of the woman, went in search of them, but to no avail.

The next morning, she was found sitting unconscious by the roadside in front of the house, while the bodies of her two children were discovered in a nearby drain wrapped in her saree, with injuries and signs of poisoning.

It has been alleged that on May 20, 2013, at around 6.30 am, the informant was bathing when his neighbour came and disclosed that his wife was sitting on the road in front of the house.

The prosecution alleged that the woman had an illicit relationship with another man, whom she claimed to have gone to last evening, and the man wanted to solemnise marriage with her, and both the children were a hurdle in the man’s desire, and this was the reason why the wife of the informant committed the murders at the instigation of that man.

The trial court convicted her under Section 302/34 IPC, prompting her to file the present plea before the high court.

No eyewitnesses to occurrence: Woman

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Arvind Krumar Choudhary submitted that there are no eyewitnesses to the occurrence and the conviction of the petitioner is based on circumstantial evidence.

It has been submitted that it was the man who was instrumental in committing the murders as he wanted to solemnise marriage with the petitioner and the children were a thorn in his desire for such marriage.

He argued that the petitioner was found in an unconscious and disheveled state sitting on the road, which furthermore signifies the distress a mother has faced on having seen her two infant children die in such brutal fashion.

Statements made deliberately: Order

The court had taken into consideration the petitioner’s statement that she had admitted to the fact that on the fateful evening she had gone to the house of the man, taking her children with her for recouping the loan amount which was extended to the man.

However, the order pointed out that her narration of the events takes a different route by pinning all the blame upon the man for causing bodily injury to the infants.

“They were also forced to drink Pepsi, and the statement of the petitioner appears to have been deliberately made to correlate with the findings in the autopsy report regarding the cause of death being poisoning and to absolve herself of any wrongdoing,” it noted.

The court dismissed the woman’s plea and upheld the trial court’s judgment convicting her under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC. It upheld the sentence of life imprisonment with a fine of Rs 20,000, along with six months’ simple imprisonment in default of payment of the fine.