MADURAI: Observing that it is the bounden duty of parents to take care of their child, irrespective of whether the child is born with or without any physical or intellectual disability, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court refused to interfere with the conviction and life sentence imposed on a couple for murdering their nine-year-old daughter, who had an intellectual disability, in Virudhunagar in 2018.
A bench of justices G K Ilanthiraiyan and R Poornima said that although it sympathises with the accused parents for the difficulties they faced in bringing up the child, it must be borne in mind that the child did not come into this world on her own but was born to the accused themselves. “If the law permits the parents to eliminate children born with an intellectual disability, no such child would survive in this world,” they added.
The bench made the observations while dismissing an appeal filed by the couple — S Muneeswaran and Revathi — challenging the conviction and punishment imposed on them by a fast track mahila court in Srivilliputhur on August 6, 2022.
According to the prosecution, the couple gave birth to the child in May 2009. Since the girl was born with an intellectual disability, Revathi, who worked as a professor in a private college, resigned her job to look after her. However, the couple couldn’t care for her and decided to end her life.
On October 1, 2018, they took the girl to a temple and administered pesticide to her by mixing it in soft drinks. Hearing the child’s cry, passersby intervened and the child was taken to Srivilliputhur Government Hospital and later to Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai. However, she died five days later.
Virudhunagar police filed a case and the couple was found guilty. However, the accused denied the charges and moved the HC.
The couple pointed out that eye witnesses turned hostile and the postmortem report did not indicate poisoning. However, the judges noted that the owner of the fertilizer shop identified Muneeswaran and testified against him.
They also explained that before her death, the deceased child had undertaken medical treatment for more than five days and that could have removed the poison from her body resulting in a negative report during postmortem examination. So such a report would not weaken the prosecution case.
Moreover, the child was in the exclusive custody of her parents, who themselves admitted the child to the hospital stating that they administered poison to her, the judges further noted. “No one has the right to take the law into their own hands and extinguish the life of another person. Even today, many parents make immense sacrifices, and even lay down their lives, for children born with disabilities,” they observed and upheld the trial court’s order.