High Court acquits woman accused of killing son

The Bombay High Court in a recent order acquitted a Sangli woman of allegations of murdering her son and another boy. The order has come nearly six years after she was arrested.

Suvarna Chavan was accused of killing her son Shubham and Pratik, who was the son of her husband's cousin. The had allegedly poisoned the two.

While Pratik was two and a half years old, Shubham was aged six. They are said to have died on April 10 and April 14 in 2007.

While the prosecution had alleged that the two children had been poisoned, the court noted that chemical analysis report on poisoning was negative.

The division bench of justices V K Tahilramani and Sadhana Jadhav said the prosecution had failed to prove that the death of Shubham and Pratik were homicidal.

The judges also noted that there was an "inordinate and unexplained delay in lodging the FIR", which was registered 10 days after Shubham's death.

While rejecting prosecution's demand for enhancement of sentence, the judges said, "In the present case, the inordinate delay in initiating prosecution against the accused is a clear indication of false implication of unsustainable grounds. Considering the fact that the prosecution has failed to establish that the children have died a homicidal death, there arises no question of enhancing the sentence."

The judges went on to acquit Suvarna of the charges against her.

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