OMBANTAVIDA BEEBI Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant,Ombantavida Beebi has been convicted by the learned Sessions Judge of Tellicherry under S.302,I.P.C .,for having committed the murder of her new born male child by asphyxiation on or about 5th February 1957 and has been sentenced to undergo simple Imprisonment for Life.

(2.) THE appellant is a woman of about 25 years of age and according to the prosecution,her husband deserted her about 1 1/2 years prior to the occurrence;but she became pregnant and gave birth to a child on or about 5 -2 -1957.The further case of the prosecution is that to cover up her shame,the appellant killed the child by suffocating it immediately after delivery and deposited the dead body of the child near the water tank which is at a short distance from the place where the appellant was living.The learned Sessions Judge has accepted the case of the prosecution and found the appellant guilty of the offence with which she was charged and sentenced her to Simple Imprisonment for Life for the reasons stated by him in paragraph 13 of his judgment.

(3.) THERE Lordships of the Supreme Court have again reiterated the same principles in their recent decision in Bed Raj v.The State of Uttar Pradesh(1956 SCJ 41 ).Mr.Justice Jagannadhadas,after referring to the decision of the Supreme Court mentioned earlier,observes at page 42 of the reports: "This standard requires that the circumstances relied upon must be fully established and that the chain of evidence furnished by these circumstances should be so far complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for a conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused."