Kerala HC sentences father, stepmother to life imprisonment for murder of minor girl

Kerala High Court on Thursday sentenced to life the father and stepmother of a minor girl for their “brutal and sustained acts of cruelty” towards her over a long period, which resulted in her death in 2013.

A bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan V and K V Jayakumar had convicted the father — Subramanian Namboodiri — and the stepmother — Ramla Begum @ Devaki Antharjanam — for the offence of murder under section 302 of IPC.

The bench said that based on the postmortem evidence and the statement



of the brother of the victim — Adhithi S Namboodiri — the then six-year-old girl died “due to prolonged physical and mental torture, neglect and manual labour for about ten months”. 

“Due to the continuous ill treatment by the accused (father and stepmother) and injury No.16 blunt trauma to the back of abdomen and flanks, she developed neurogenic shock, which is the immediate cause of death,” the bench said, allowing the State’s appeal against the sessions court decision acquitting the couple of murder charges.