NEW DELHI: The Kerala high court has sentenced a father and stepmother to life imprisonment for the “brutal and sustained acts of cruelty” that led to the death of a six-year-old girl more than a decade ago.
A bench comprising Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and K V Jayakumar found Subramanian Namboodiri and his wife, Ramla Begum — also known as Devaki Antharjanam — guilty of murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
The court said the child died in 2013 as a result of prolonged physical and mental abuse, neglect, and forced manual labour lasting nearly ten months.
“Due to continuous ill-treatment by the accused and blunt trauma to the back of the abdomen and flanks, she developed neurogenic shock, which was the immediate cause of death,” the judges observed.
Their ruling came after the state appealed a 2016 sessions court decision that had acquitted the couple of murder, convicting them only of causing hurt. That court had reasoned that the pair had no intention to kill the child, claiming their actions were meant to “enforce discipline”.
However, the high court rejected that view, calling it “manifestly untenable” and “palpably erroneous”.
It said the trial court had “misread and failed to appreciate” the prosecution’s evidence, including medical records and testimony from the victim’s brother, Arun S Namboodiri.
The evidence, the court said, revealed “inhuman, sadistic, and demonic torture”, including severe beatings, deliberate starvation, multiple fractures, and the pouring of boiling water on the girl’s genitals.
The bench noted that the totality of evidence showed “a shared intention and a concerted course of conduct resulting in the death of the child”.
While upholding the murder conviction, the court declined the prosecution’s request for the death penalty, saying there were no “special reasons” to justify capital punishment.
Both accused have been fined Rs 2 lakh each. Their acquittal on charges of attempting to murder the victim’s 10-year-old brother was upheld.
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