Man, stepmother sentenced to life by Kerala HC for murder of minor girl

Kochi | The Kerala High Court on Thursday sentenced to life the father and stepmother of a minor girl for their "brutal and sustained acts of cruelty" towards her over a long period which resulted in her death in 2013.

A bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and K V Jayakumar had a day ago convicted the father -- Subramanian Namboodiri -- and the stepmother -- Ramla Begum @ Devaki Antharjanam -- for the offence of murder under section 302 of IPC.

The bench said that based on the postmortem evidence and the statement of the brother of the victim -- Adhithi S Namboodiri -- the then six-year-old girl died "due to prolonged physical and mental torture, neglect and manual labour for about ten months".

"Due to the continuous ill treatment by the accused (father and stepmother) and injury No.16 blunt trauma to the back of abdomen and flanks, she developed neurogenic shock, which is the immediate cause of death," the bench said allowing the state's appeal against the sessions court decision acquitting the couple of murder charges.

While convicting the two accused for murder of the girl, the High Court upheld their acquittal for the offence of attempted murder of the victim's then 10-year-old brother.

The High Court sentenced the couple to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs two lakh on each of them after hearing arguments on sentence.

The bench declined to sentence them to death, as sought by the prosecution, saying that it cannot "trace out any special reasons" for giving capital punishment.

The sessions court had in 2016 only convicted them for voluntarily causing hurt and sentenced the man and women to three and two years imprisonment, respectively.

The trial court was of the view that the accused couple had no intention to commit murder of the children and that their actions were merely intended to cause hurt with the object of enforcing discipline.

The High Court set aside the subordinate court's order, saying that its reasoning was "manifestly untenable, palpably erroneous, and based on a misapplication of the settled principles of criminal law".

"We find that the conclusion arrived at by the sessions judge is wholly perverse, contrary to the weight of evidence, and unsustainable in law.

"The totality of evidence unmistakably points to the existence of a shared intention and a concerted course of conduct resulting in the death of the child, thereby fully attracting the provisions of section 302 (murder) read with section 34 (common intention) of the IPC," the bench said.

It further said that the sessions court's decision suffers from "glaring" factual and legal errors and if the acquittal, for murder, was allowed to stand, "it would result in grave miscarriage of justice".

The High Court said that the trial court's appreciation of the evidence was "patently illegal, manifestly unjust, and wholly unreasonable".

"The sessions judge has misread and failed to appreciate the credible evidence let in by the prosecution and arrived at a perverse finding, which has resulted in grave failure of justice," it said.

The High Court said that the trial court disregarded the "overwhelming" medical and circumstantial evidence which unmistakably pointed to "the brutal and sustained acts of cruelty over a long period inflicted upon a minor child aged six years".

The bench said that the acts of cruelty included severe beatings, the pouring of boiling water on the genitals, multiple fractures and deliberate starvation, and the resulting physical and psychological trauma culminated in the neurogenic shock which led to the girl's death.

The High Court further said that the evidence of the victim's brother -- Arun S Namboodiri -- and the medical evidence clearly depicted the true extent of the "inhuman, sadistic, and demonic torture to which the young children were subjected".