Kerala HC acquits woman sentenced to life for murder of newborn baby

The Kerala High Court has acquitted a woman who was previously sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly killing her newborn baby in 2009 and disposing of the body in an abandoned property. The court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the charge of murder beyond a reasonable doubt. The bench of justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and K V Jayakumar stated that the prosecution could not prove the motive to conceal the illegitimacy of the pregnancy, as the accused's sister-in-law and a neighbor were aware of her pregnancy.

The bench also pointed out several missing links in the evidence, such as the unrecovered weapon used for strangulation and cut injury on the child, and the possibility of a third party's intervention. The court noted that the accused was not seen walking to the abandoned property and there was no evidence explaining how the act was carried out unnoticed.

The High Court concluded that the available evidence was capable of pointing to both the accused's guilt and innocence, and therefore decided to rule in favor of the accused.