HC confirms conviction of woman for murdering child

Chennai, June 8 () Madras High Court today upheld the life sentence awarded by the lower court convicting a woman of murdering a three-and-half year old son of his lover in grudge against him for refusing to marry her. A division bench comprising Justice M Jaichendren and Justice S Nagamuthu held that the circumstances cited by the proseution form a complete chain which unerringly prove the guilt of the accused.The bench was dismissing the appeal filed by accused Poovarasi against the February 15, 2011 order of the VI Additional Sessions Court here awarding her life sentence for murdering the boy, disposing the body in a suitcase which was found unclaimed at Nagapattinam bus stand. According to prosecution, Poovarasi, an employee of a private insurance firm, was in love with her colleague Jaikumar, and as he did not marry her, she killed his son. She enacted a drama by saying the boy was kidnapped, but initially prevented Jaikumar from approaching police. Though Poovarasi, who was arrested later, did not accept her guilt, the Prosecution was able to prove the case based on the circumstantial evidences and recovering materials such as skipping rope, used to strangulate the child. Noting that there were several lapses in the investigation such as not searching Poovarasi's room on the same date of the complaint, the bench in its order said “In our considered view, if these lapses had not occurred the prosecution would have certainly further strengthened the case against the accused. "Notwithstanding these lapses we find that the prosecution has proved the guilt of the accused and thus the trial court was right in convicting the accused,” the Bench ruled. COR VS