JAYALAKSHMI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is the mother of three young children aged 7 years, 4 years and 5 months respectively. Her story, as projected by the prosecution, goes like this. When she was in the womb of her mother, her father deserted her mother and disappeared. Within one year of her birth, her mother also disappeared. Her grand -mother, an old lady, struggled to bring her up. Quite naturally, the family was in utter poverty. When she attained marriageable age, she was given in marriage to one Mr.Krishnan of Mettuppatty Village. Searching for coolie work, the young couple went to Allikuttai Village. Two children were born to them at Allikuttai Village. Since they did not continue to get coolie work, they returned back to Nesavalar Colony in Mettuppatty Village and they were residing in a rented house. Her husband was working in a handloom. His income was not sufficient to maintain the family. Her husband, therefore, went for cooking also. Then, the third child was born. The poverty became more aggressive and severe. They could not even feed the children. On 02.09.2008, her husband went for cooking. He had no money to give to the appellant to purchase rice and other essential commodities to feed the children. Greatly affected by hunger, the children started crying. People from whom they had borrowed small amount of money also brought pressure upon the family for repayment with interest

(2.) On 03.09.2008, for the whole night the hungry children were crying for food. The small quantity of cow milk, which the appellant had kept for the third child, also got spoiled. The mother feeding became impossible as her breast had dried up as she herself did eat nothing. The whole night the appellant was weeping, cursing her inability to feed her children who were crying for something to eat or drink. Nobody came forward to help her family. The entire world appeared to be so dark for her and her future was obviously bleak. She was fully depressed, like Nallathangal [The deity of Nallathangal in the Temple at Vatrayiruppu Village in Virudhunagar District, Tamil Nadu]. It is alleged that she decided to end her life after killing all her three children. At about 2.45 a.m. on 04.09.2008, she took all the three children to a nearby well and threw the children into the well one after the other and at last, she also jumped into the well. However, she fortunately survived as the water in the well was not sufficiently deep. All the three children perished in the well. On seeing the dead bodies of all the three children in the well, P.W.1,a Village Administrative Officer made a complaint to the police. A case was registered on the same. The dead bodies were lifted and after inquest, they were sent for postmortem.

(3.) Meanwhile, the appellant/accused appeared before P.W.1, the Village Administrative Officer on 04.09.2008 at