Motive/intention completely missing; can’t be convicted for murder: SC

NEW DELHI: An Anganwadi worker, leading a happy family life in a remote Chhattisgarh village, inexplicably bludgeoned to death her daughters, aged five and three with a crowbar, cried incessantly after the murders and claimed during trial that she was possessed by ‘invisible powers” at the time of committing the crime.
She was convicted on Monday by both trial court and the HC for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. But a Supreme Court bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh delved deep into the evidence to find that the intention to murder was completely absent.
Writing the judgment, Justice Singh inferred that the ‘invisible powers’ could be a temporary medical condition and converted her conviction to culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 part II. The bench ordered her release from jail on finding that she has been lodged in jail for nearly 10 years.
Referring to her blabbering that ‘she is Mata, Budi Dai etc’ 15 days prior to the incident on June 5, 2015, and the fact that she was taken to hospital for consultation with a psychiatrist, Justice Singh said in the rural settings where superstitions run deep and mental problems are often confused with control of “invisible powers’ over a person, it was possible that she had a sudden bout of mental disorder leading to the killings.
“If there were no motivating factors at all which impelled her to commit such a gruesome crime in a domestic environment which was otherwise normal in all respects, it is totally inexplicable and incomprehensible how a mother who loves her children and who had a cordial relation with her husband could resort to such a violent act and be attributed with the “intention to cause death” of her beloved children, except for coming under some influence or forces beyond her control as claimed by her,” the bench said.
“It is not common for rustic persons to be aware of various mental disorders/illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, that may temporarily impair the mental condition of an individual. More often than not, these disorders are unrecognised and remain untreated as it may be difficult to identify the symptoms and they do not seek proper and timely medical intervention, resulting in such medical/mental conditions which can be misinterpreted or confused with spells or influence of invisible forces based on superstitions,” it said.
“In complete absence of motive, a mother assaulting her children of tender ages to death, that too when it is admitted that there was no animosity, but only love for her children, is contrary to lived human experiences… The circumstances are enough to cast a shadow of doubt about the existence of the intention of the appellant to commit the crime in the present case. We are, thus, satisfied that in the present case ‘intention of causing death’ cannot be said to have proved,” it said and convicted her for a lesser offence under Section 304-II IPC.
The SC said given her strange, bizarre and inexplicable behaviour, the only explanation for this could be that she suffered from impaired mental condition, which she described as “invisible powers”.
The bench said the trial courts and HCs would be under an obligation, in such bizarre incidents, to inquire into the mental soundness of the accused before rushing to a conclusion about fastening murder charges on an accused.