Thane: Court acquits woman accused of killing her newborn child

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A court in Maharashtra's Thane district has acquitted a 34-year-old woman accused of killing her newborn child, giving her the benefit of doubt.

Kalyan court's Additional Sessions Judge Shaukat S Gorwade, in the October 4 order, which was made available on Monday, held that the prosecution failed to prove the charge against the woman under Indian Penal Code Section 302 (murder).

Additional Public Prosecutor S R Kulkarni told the court that the woman, who already had two daughters, delivered a baby girl on April 15, 2018 and was discharged from hospital on April 17.

On April 21, 2018, the woman, hailing from Umbarde village in Kalyan town, went with her husband and newborn baby to the Civil Hospital where doctors declared the child brought dead.

The Khadakpada police conducted a probe into the matter and alleged that the woman strangulated and gagged the baby to death as she had delivered the third girl child.

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The police registered a case against her under IPC Section 302.

The judge in his order said the prosecution has not led any evidence to prove the nail marks found on the throat and neck of the deceased are of the accused.

"Palpably, the accused and her husband were with the deceased when they brought the child to the hospital. Therefore, there is doubt about the murder of the deceased. There is no witness who can prove that the accused pressed the mouth and neck of the deceased and caused her murder. There is no chain at all which establishes a nexus between the crime and the accused," the judge said.

Except the confessional statement of the accused, that too recorded by the police, is inadmissible in evidence, the court said.

There is neither oral nor documentary evidence brought on record by the prosecution to link the accused with the crime, it said.

"Though the prosecution proved that the deceased died a homicidal death, the prosecution has not linked the accused with the
crime. Hence, for want of evidence, the prosecution failed to prove that the accused had committed the murder of the deceased," the court said.

Hence, the woman needs to be acquitted, the court added.

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