KOCHI: Overturning a trial court’s conviction of a woman in the murder of her nine-year-old son, the High Court on Thursday quoted Rudyard Kipling and said: “Gods could not be anywhere, and therefore he made mothers.”
The division bench comprising Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice C Jayachandran also observed that when a woman kills her progeny, “there is more to it than what meets the eye, the sensitivity for which investigators often lack.”
The acquittal came on an appeal filed by Teena of Mookkannur, Ernakulam, challenging her conviction by the Ernakulam Special Court in the child’s death that took place in 2016. The HC bench said it could not sustain the trial court’s conviction which was based on mere surmises and conjectures.
As per the chargesheet, on April 30, 2016, Teena administered sleeping pills to her child, slit his right wrist and smothered him with a towel. Later, she is said to have voluntarily consumed pesticide and slit her wrist too. “The trial court assumed that the woman locked the front door, kept the key outside and entered the house through the back door. However, this can also apply to the husband or a third person who could have committed the act and left the house locked,” said the bench.
‘Last seen together’ theory fails to impress court
The court observed that the husband is said to have arrived at 8.30pm and enquired with his neighbour why no lights in his house were turned on. This, it said, was possibly aimed at establishing an alibi that he had not been inside the house, especially in the context of him admitting to having a strained relationship with his wife for the past few days.
“The ‘last seen together’ theory does not impress us as the key of the house was kept outside and anybody could have entered the house,” said the court. The bench also said the prosecution miserably failed to prove the purchase of Nitrest tablets or recovery of the empty strip from Teena’s house. The strip was also not produced in court as it was not returned by the FSL.
“As for the evidence of pesticide bottle, it is very artificial,” said the bench. It said the doctor who conducted the postmortem examination said the child’s death was caused by smothering, not due to the injury on the wrist or imbibing of any poison, thereby ruling out the cause of death by administration of sleeping pills. The prosecution failed to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt, said the court.