Mumbai: A sessions court on Wednesday sentenced a 40-year-old woman to life imprisonment for throwing her month-old-baby girl - one of the twins born to her - out of a bathroom window in KEM Hospital, in October 2010.
The then head of the department of psychiatry, Dr Shubhangi Parkar, had testified as a defence witness in support of the woman, Dipika Parmar. Dr Parkar had told the court that Parmar, whom she had treated after the incident, was found suffering from postpartum depression and had neither eaten nor slept well since the birth of her twins. The other infant was male. The children were prematurely born, she had told the court and Parmar and her husband, who were under duress financially, were told that the babies might not survive. The doctor had further testified that the patient had a history of miscarriage, had also lost another child and was therefore, nervous about this pregnancy.
The prosecution had examined nine witnesses - of whom one was the complainant, part of the security team of the hospital. He deposed before court that he was informed by the nurse of Ward No. 2 that a woman had complained her infant was missing. He had rushed to the ward and then heard the sound of a baby crying outside the bathroom’s window. He hurried to the spot with the babies’ father and found that the infant’s right ear was bleeding, possibly having been nibbled at by rats and she also had head injuries. She was admitted to the casualty ward where she succumbed later. He said that the mother of the child confessed to him on questioning that she had thrown the child out of the bathroom window. Another witness was the nurse to whom Parmar had complained that her child was missing. The prosecution had also produced CCTV footage before the court, in which the woman could be seen entering the bathroom with her infant, but exiting without her.
Parmar had been booked by the Bhoiwada police station under IPC Section 317 (abandoning a child) and later Section 302 (punishment for murder) was added against her. The incident had taken place in the early hours of October 26, 2010, around 4.30am. Parmar had been admitted to the ward the day before. She had secured bail in December 2010.
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