KOZHIKODE: Thirty years after a girl child was brutally murdered by a woman and her lover in 1991, Kozhikode district and sessions court on Saturday sentenced the woman to life imprisonment and Rs 10,000 fine.
Second accused, Beena alias Haseena, 50, of Ernakulam, was sentenced by the court. The trial in the case got delayed for as the accused had gone into hiding after getting bail. The case pertains to the accused adopting a four-and-half year-old girl from Karnataka and torturing the child to death along with her partner. They had reportedly bought the child from a Karnataka-native woman. The first accused, Ganeshan, is still at large.
The crime was reported on November 21, 1991. The accused was found guilty of Section 302 (murder) of the IPC. After adopting the child, the couple stayed at various lodges. They later felt that the child was a nuisance and started to torture her. She was then taken to a hospital and the accused fled from there. The child died at the hospital.
The prosecution had to work hard to prove the case as decades had passed since the crime was committed, sources said. Witnesses had forgotten their statements and documents had been destroyed. Medical reports and circumstantial evidence became crucial, sources said.
There were 76 injuries on the child's body, including burn injuries, sources added.
Beena was arrested again in March 2021 by a team of officers, including Town SI Abdul Saleem, SCPO Sajesh Kumar, CPO Rajeesh Babu and Sujana from Kalamassery. She had been in remand ever since.
