Father, stepmother get life term for brutal murder of six-year-old girl in Kerala

Kochi: In a chilling reminder of prolonged child abuse that ended in gruesome tragedy, the Kerala High Court on Thursday sentenced a father and his second wife to life imprisonment for the murder of a six -year -old girl, whose death in 2013 was the result of sustained cruelty and torture.

The bench comprising Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and K V Jayakumar found Subramanian Namboodiri and his wife, Ramla Begum alias Devaki Antharjanam, guilty under Section 302 of the IPC, overturning a 2016 sessions court verdict that had acquitted them of murder.

According to the court, the child died due to “prolonged physical and mental torture, neglect, and forced manual labour for about ten months.” Medical evidence confirmed that blunt trauma to her abdomen and flanks caused neurogenic shock, the immediate cause of death.

The High Court, while hearing the state’s appeal, held that the sessions court’s earlier reasoning was “manifestly untenable, palpably erroneous, and wholly contrary to the evidence.” It observed that the couple’s sustained cruelty included severe beatings, starvation, pouring boiling water on the child’s genitals, and inflicting multiple fractures.

The bench ruled that the totality of evidence established a “shared intention and concerted course of conduct” between the father and stepmother that resulted in the girl’s death.

Rejecting the prosecution’s plea for capital punishment, the court said there were no “special reasons” to impose the death penalty, but that the couple’s actions were “inhuman, sadistic, and demonic.”

The High Court sentenced both accused to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of two lakh rupees each.

The sessions court had earlier convicted the duo only for voluntarily causing hurt, sentencing Subramanian to three years and Ramla to two years in prison, reasoning that they had no intent to murder the children but sought to “discipline” them.

The High Court, however, dismissed this as “patently illegal and unjust,” ruling that such a conclusion would amount to a “grave miscarriage of justice.”

The girl’s brother, Arun S Namboodiri, had testified to the prolonged abuse and violence the siblings suffered. His testimony, along with medical and circumstantial evidence, was instrumental in securing justice for his sister more than a decade after her death.