Madras high court upholds life sentence of couple who murdered daughter

Madurai: Upholding the life sentence awarded by a trial court to a couple for murdering their nine-year-old daughter with intellectual disability in Virudhunagar district, Madras high court observed that if the law permits parents to eliminate children born with intellectual disability, no such child would survive in this world.

A division bench of justice G K Ilanthiraiyan and justice R Poornima observed that while the court sympathises with the accused parents for the difficulties they faced in bringing up the child, it must be borne in mind that the child did not come into this world on her own but was born to the accused themselves. It is the bounden duty of the parents to take care of their child, whether the child is born with mental illness, physical disability, or without any disability at all.

"No one has the right to take the law into their own hands and extinguish the life of another person. Even today, many parents make immense sacrifices, and even lay down their lives, for children born with disabilities," the judges observed.

The court made the observations while dismissing the appeal preferred by a couple challenging the conviction and life sentence imposed on them by the fast track mahila court at Srivilliputhur in Virudhunagar district in 2022.

The case of the prosecution is that the girl child born to the couple in 2009 suffered from intellectual disability since birth and required constant care. Due to this, the couple suffered mental distress. On Oct 1, 2018, the couple took their daughter near a temple and administered poison (insecticide) to her by mixing it with a cool drink. The child died on Oct 6, 2018.

The judges observed that the child was in the exclusive custody of her parents, who themselves admitted the child to the hospital, stating that they administered poison to her. The parents were the first and second accused.

Medical evidence clearly proves that the child died due to poisoning administered by the accused. Therefore, the trial court rightly convicted the accused for the offence of murder. "We find no perversity or illegality in the trial court," the judges observed, and confirmed the life sentence imposed by the trial court.