The Thane Principal District and Sessions Court has acquitted a 31-year-old woman who was accused of killing her 10-month-old daughter and later throwing her body into the Kalwa Creek. The court, presided over by Principal Judge S.B. Agarwal, ruled that the prosecution failed to establish a complete chain of circumstances, leaving room for reasonable doubt and supporting the innocence of the accused.
The case dates back to May 2018, when the woman was traveling to her matrimonial home with her ailing 10-month-old child. According to the prosecution, the child was deaf and mute, and the accused, allegedly frustrated with her child’s condition, throttled her. She then reportedly took a rickshaw to Kalwa Bridge, waited until dusk, and disposed of the child’s body in the Kalwa Creek.
A month after the incident, the woman’s husband filed a complaint at the police station, accusing his wife of killing their daughter and disposing of the evidence.
During the trial, key prosecution witnesses, including the husband and the victim’s sister, turned hostile, significantly weakening the case.
The court observed: “Although the witness turned hostile, what is apparent from his evidence is that the victim was deaf, mute, and bedridden… There is no clarity in his testimony. Similarly, the victim’s sister deposed that she did not accompany her mother on the day of the incident and that only her mother and the victim had gone out. She also stated that she did not know what happened to them and only knew that her mother returned without the victim. She denied telling the police that her mother had killed the victim and thrown her into the water.”
The court ruled that apart from the husband’s and daughter’s statements—neither of which fully supported the prosecution—there was no material evidence against the accused.
The court further held that even the “last seen together” theory could not be conclusively established.
“No doubt, grave suspicion can be pointed towards the accused, but it is a well-established legal principle that suspicion alone cannot replace conviction or serve as proof of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt—especially in the absence of corpus delicti (body of the crime). In such circumstances, the accused is certainly entitled to the benefit of the doubt,” the court stated.
Thus, with insufficient evidence and prosecution witnesses failing to support the case, the court acquitted the woman.
