Woman sentenced to lifer for killing her infant gets HC relief

Panaji: The Bombay high court allowed an appeal of a mother who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering her infant, a girl child, in 2022 in North Goa.

The children’s court, in Jan this year, convicted and sentenced her to life imprisonment after she pleaded guilty to killing her infant.

The high court remanded the matter back to the Goa children’s court for a fresh trial stating that the children’s court mechanically accepted her guilty plea without following procedure.

Observing that she was not in a fit mental condition at the time, the high court directed the Goa children’s court to follow procedure under Chapter XXV of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which outlines legal procedures for dealing with accused persons who are of unsound mind during trial.

The woman’s advocate, Vithal Naik, told the high court that the children’s court judge herself did not explain the consequences of accepting the plea of guilty.

He added that the woman was not mentally fit at the time of trial or even at the time of the commission of the offence and could not have been in a position to understand the consequence of her plea of guilt.

“...the learned judge herself did not explain the charge on this occasion and did not explain the consequences of pleading guilty to the charge. This is one major infirmity in this procedure which caused a very serious prejudice to the appellant. Particularly in the background of the fact that there was a history of the appellant suffering from mental disorder and depression,” the division bench comprising Justices Sarang V Kotwal and Ashish S Chavan of the high court observed.

The Goa children’s court recorded the fact that the woman herself stated that she was suffering from a mental condition and was disturbed on account of harassment meted out to her by her husband.

“The order regarding the plea of guilty and the order of sentence were passed one after the other, and therefore the learned judge was aware of the stand taken by the appellant. Therefore, it cannot be said that the appellant voluntarily pleaded guilty or that she was aware of the consequences of her pleading guilty to such a serious charge,” the high court stated.

The infant suffered 15 injuries all over her body.

The court was told that she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder four years before she delivered and was being treated with antidepressants and sleeping medicines.

She was restarted on medication again after the delivery of her first child and again when she was six months pregnant with her second child.



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