A 62-year-old woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing her grandson to take "revenge" from her daughter-in-law, whom she blamed for separating her son.
"...But whatsoever may be the extent of strained relation or her anger towards her daughter-in-law, it can never justify the killing of an innocent child and taking away a precious life," Additional Sessions Judge Savita Rao said while handing over the life term to the woman, who had attempted suicide after committing the crime.
Holding her guilty for the offences of murder (section 302) and attempt to commit suicide (section 309) under the IPC, the court termed her crime as "most cruelsome act". It also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on her.
"Accused (woman) in the heat of annoyance and in order to take revenge from her daughter-in-law seemed to have killed her grandson and thereafter tried to commit suicide herself, probably apprehending the consequences which would follow after the commission of such a heinous crime."
The court noted that testimonies of prosecution witnesses established the motive of murder of the child which was to take revenge from her daughter-in-law, who in her opinion had separated her son from her.
"She (convict) had also threatened her daughter-in-law in this respect on a day prior to the date of incident by revealing her intentions," it said.
"Considering the evidence on record, nothing is left to further prove with respect to the commission of most heinous offence committed by her. Accordingly, I have no hesitation to conclude that prosecution has been able to prove its case against her beyond any shadow of doubt," it said.
According to the prosecution, on September 30, 2011 the daughter-in-law was informed by her landlord that her mother-in-law had brought her son back from school and had killed him by throttling his neck at a property dealer's office in the locality.
