Kerala High Court acquits parents who disposed of body of 6-month-old daughter at sea unaware that she was alive

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday acquitted a couple who had earlier been convicted by a trial court for murder and connected offences after they disposed of the body of their infant daughter in the Arabian Sea without realizing that the child was still alive [Prathibha v. State of Kerala]..The verdict acquitting them was delivered by a division bench of Justices PB Suresh Kumar and Johnson John..Pertinently, the bench noted that for the offence of culpable homicide under Section 299 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to be established, the perpetrators have to perform an act that causes the death of another, either with an intention to end human life or with the knowledge that the act may end human life. Since the accused couple believed that their daughter was already dead when they put her in the sea, the bench concluded that their act would not attract the offence under Section 299 of the IPC. "If the act is performed on a body which the person concerned believed to be lifeless, the offence is not attracted, for when the act was performed, the person concerned could have neither had the intention of putting an end to the human life nor had the knowledge that the act performed by him may or is likely put an end to human life", the Court held..On the same grounds, the conviction of the couple for murder under Section 302 of IPC was also set aside. "The intention of the accused must be judged not in the light of the actual circumstances, but in the light of what he supposed to be the circumstances and that therefore, he/she is not guilty of culpable homicide if his intention was directed only to what he believed to be a lifeless body," the Court said..The accused couple, who hailed from Uttar Pradesh, had been convicted by the Additional Sessions Court I, Alappuzha, for murder and causing the disappearance of evidence. .The allegation against them was that they caused their daughter's death by hitting her head against a cot and later disposed of her body in the sea. The case was registered after a fisherman found the infant's body floating in the sea. However, the sessions court charged them only with causing her death by drowning her in the sea.It was the accused couple's argument that they did not put their child in the sea while she was alive but that they had merely disposed of her body after her accidental death, as it was a form of burial as per their custom..After going through the material on record, the High Court found that the prosecution had failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the couple had been abusive to their child or knew that the infant had been alive when they put her in the sea. "In the case on hand, the prosecution has not proved any facts from which a reasonable inference can be made that the accused had the knowledge that the infant was alive when they disposed of her body in the sea. The facts proved by the prosecution would only establish that the infant suffered an injury on her head before her body was disposed of by the accused in the sea. We do not think that from the said fact alone, it could be reasonably inferred that the accused had knowledge that the infant was alive when they disposed of her body in the sea," the Court said in its judgment acquitting the couple of all charges. .The accused couple was represented by advocates JR Prem Navaz, Sumin S, and State Brief P Yemuna.Special Government Pleader Ambika Devi appeared for the State prosecution. .[Read Judgment]