TNN / Feb 24, 2025, 00:47 IST
Ahmedabad: A couple has been sentenecd to a three-year jail term for abandoning their newborn daughter and letting her die in Mehsana district five years ago. The couple did not want to keep the girl child, and the mother had taken five pills for abortion.
A Mehsana sessions court held Prakashji Thakor and his wife Chetna guilty of abandoning the child, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and abetment. The court showed leniency and did not hand down the maximum punishment, which is 10 years in this case, to the couple, considering the fact that they have two other children to look after.
According to the prosecution's case, a newborn girl was found abandoned near a public toilet in the station area of Ambaliyasan town on Feb 21, 2020. The baby was alive and was rushed to hospital, where she died during treatment four days later. Police filed an FIR in Langhnaj police station under Sections 317, 304, and 114 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for abandoning the child and causing her death.
During the trial, the prosecution examined 20 witnesses and supplied 40 documents to establish the offence of the accused. The parents tried to defend their act and submitted that it was a miscarriage and the child was stillborn, and therefore, they left her.
After the trial, principal district judge J R Shah cited a testimony of a private doctor the couple was consulting and noted that there is a reason to believe that the woman did not want to have a girl child because she took five pills for termination of her pregnancy. The court further stated, "If the girl was stillborn, any parent would first take her to a doctor for examination instead of going home by assuming that the child was stillborn. Even if it is assumed at one stage that the accused found the girl to be stillborn, they should have made proper arrangements for the disposal of the body instead of abandoning her at a location like a toilet, where she was found."
The court further stated, "Considering the behaviour of the accused, it is indisputably proven that the girl was alive at birth. Despite knowing this fact, the accused did not want to keep the baby and abandoned the living child at a place like a toilet, intending to leave her behind." It convicted the couple under Sections 304-Part-B, 317, and 114 of IPC.
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