An HIV infected woman convict, serving life term for killing her two children in 2002, has opted to give her third child, a two-month-old baby boy, to the District Social Welfare Department as she was unable to bring him up.
The boy, born in the special prison here, had been handed over to the custody of a Salem-based trust engaged in adoption service, District Social Welfare Officer S Usha said today.
The woman will have two months time for a re-think and claim back the child, born out of her second marriage which took place while she was on bail. If she sticks to her decision, the baby would be put up for adoption, Usha said.
The woman had attempted suicide by jumping into a well with two of her daughters, born out of her first marriage, following some domestic quarrel.
While the two children drowned, she was saved and arrested. A court convicted her for murder and sentenced her to life imprisonment.
She obtained bail in 2009 after appealing against her conviction. While out on bail, she married again and gave birth to the boy.
In March last year, Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court upheld the conviction and the sentence and she was sent to jail again.
The woman was found to be carrying HIV infection, but the baby boy had not contracted it as she was administered anti-retroviral therapy when she was pregnant, jail officials said.
