Mumbai. The Bombay excessive court docket (HC) on Tuesday upheld the conviction and life sentence of a widow, who had killed her new-born daughter 27 years in the past, purportedly to cover her illicit relationship and the undesirable being pregnant precipitated eight years after her husband’s dying.
The 2-member HC division bench, comprising Justices RD Dhanuka and Surendra Tavade, upheld the conviction of Kamlabai Gharat, because the prosecution had proved the chain of circumstances towards her past the shadow of affordable doubt.
There was no person else, besides the appellant-accused to commit the homicide of her new-born daughter, the court docket stated.
The bench has directed Alibag district and classes court docket to safe Gharat’s presence and remand her to jail for serving the rest of the jail time period.
In accordance with the prosecution, on November 10, 1993, residents of Nhava Sheva in Uran discovered a new-born lady deserted close to Sheva bus stand.
One of many residents took the toddler to his home, the place she was supplied with the required care and meals.
He reported the matter to native police authorities, who arrested Gharat after discovering out that she was pregnant, and suspected her of abandoning the new-born.
Initially, the police took Gharat and the toddler to the Rural Hospital at Uran and later to Alibag Civil Hospital, the place she strangulated her youngster.
In 1995, the classes court docket convicted Gharat for homicide and sentenced her to life.
Nevertheless, she was acquitted of abandoning the kid.
Later, Gharat moved HC in an attraction difficult her conviction on numerous grounds.
The bench on Tuesday dismissed the attraction.
It concluded that the prosecution had proved all of the circumstances towards Gharat such because the abandonment of the kid, the great bodily situation of the neonate earlier than her homicide, and the truth that the new-born lady was along with her ever since they had been taken to the Rural Hospital at Uran and later to Alibag Civil Hospital.
The bench held that the prosecution had proved homicidal dying of the kid and that there was nobody round when the toddler was killed, aside from Gharat.
The judges discovered that there was a motive for Gharat to commit the crime — to cover the complete episode of her illicit affair — the being pregnant precipitated eight years after the dying of her husband and start of the undesirable youngster.