Couple guilty of killing daughter

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Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Chandigarh, January 10

Additional Sessions Judge Jaibir Singh has convicted Vishal and his wife Pooja of killing their 25-day-old daughter at Ram Darbar four years ago. The court will pronounce the quantum of the sentence tomorrow.

According to the prosecution, the baby was killed in a fit of anger when the couple had a fight. She was the first child of the couple. The police came to know about the incident when the child helpline received an anonymous call on August 14, 2018.

One of the members of the helpline team told the police that they were informed by neighbours that the woman had picked a fight with her husband and she threw the baby on the bed in a fit of anger, which led to her death. The couple buried the baby at the Hallo Majra cremation ground the next day.

The police registered an FIR against the couple under Sections 304 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code. They submitted the investigation report to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate concerned, who ordered that the body be exhumed. A team of doctors from the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, conducted a post-mortem examination that stated the cause of death was cerebral damage consequent upon blunt force/surface impact, which was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. The police filed a chargesheet alleging that both parents killed their baby and in connivance with each other.

While the counsel of the accused denied all charges, the parents claimed the baby died due to natural causes as she was very weak by birth.