Mother who killed her three kids, and then survived suicide bid, acquitted of murder charge

CHENNAI: It is a two-kerchief story indeed.

A poverty-stricken mother who killed her three children by flinging them into a well , before she herself unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide , has escaped imprisonment for life as Madras high court acquitted her of all charges.

Besides poverty and destitution, the woman suffered from a mental condition -- psychomotor activity retardation/impairment caused by extreme depression.

Citing this illness, a division bench of Justice M Jaichandren and Justice S Nagamuthu said, "we are of the view, assuming that the accused had thrown her children into the well, it is not an offence in the eye of law.”

Jayalakshmi had a troubled childhood, as her father deserted the family within a year of her birth. Her mother also disappeared soon after, and Jayalakshmi was brought up by her grandmother. Chased by poverty from the beginning of her life, Jayalaksmi married one Krishnan and got three children out of the wedlock.

Family poverty became more severe and the couple could not even feed their children. On September 3, 2008, the entire family, including the children, was crying for food and the small quantity of milk kept for the third child was also spoiled. Even mother feeding became impossible, as Jayalakshmi herself had not eaten anything for days.

It was then, that Jayalakshmi decided to end her life after killing all her three children. In the early hours of September 4, 2008 she took all the three children to a nearby well and flung the children into the well one after the other. At last she also jumped into the well.

While the children perished in the well, Jayalakshmi survived as the water in the well was not deep enough.

Karipatti police registered a case and tried her for murder.

On February 2, 2012, Fast Track Court-I in Salem awarded her imprisonment for life, after finding her guilty of murders.

The high court, however, cited the evidence of Dr Meenakshi, who had treated appellant Jayalakshmi, and rejected the arguments of prosecution that the disease was not serious enough to render the woman incapable of knowing whether what she was doing was wrong or right.

The bench said: “We find no force in the argument for the simple reason that the medical records, coupled with the evidence of the doctor, would go to establish that the accused was incapable of knowing the nature of her act on account of the unsoundness of her mind.”

