The Gauhati High Court has acquitted a woman sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly murdering her one-month-old daughter, ruling that her confessional statement was inadmissible as it was recorded in the presence of a policewoman and that the trial court should have considered the possibility of postpartum psychosis.
During the trial, the husband of the woman denied giving a statement that she had confessed to other villagers about throwing her daughter in the river. The court also found that the woman was not aware that the confession was being recorded. The body of the infant was never recovered despite a thorough search.
In its order issued on October 6, a divisional bench of justices Michael Jothankhuma and Rajesh Mazumdar said that the trial court should also have considered postpartum psychosis, a temporary condition witnessed in some women soon after childbirth, which can lead them to lose their sense of reality and pose risks to the newborn in some cases. The present case dates back to October 15, 2016, when the husband of the accused filed an FIR at Disangmukh police station in Assam’s Sibsagar district, stating that his daughter, who was one month and eight days old, had gone missing from the previous night.
During interrogation, the woman, who was with the child and her two-year-old son on the night of the incident, confessed to having murdered her daughter and disposed of the body in the Dikhow River, according to the police. Other witnesses also stated that they were told by the police about the woman’s confession. “The same makes the said confessional statement inadmissible as evidence, as the accused cannot be said to be completely free from police pressure or influence at the time of making her confession,” the HC order read.
The appellant should be released immediately from judicial custody, if not wanted in any other case,” it added. “Consequently, the impugned judgment dated September 12, 2023 passed by the court of sessions judge, Sivasagar…is set aside.
