HC lets off man given life term for killing his toddler daughter

According to Gavandi’s wife Kirti,they got married in 2000 and lived cordially until the birth of their third daughter Aarti. According to the prosecution,Gavandi was upset with his wife for giving birth to a girl child for the third time. Kirti,however,tried to convince her husband that the third child she delivers would be a boy.

Aarti was suffering from stomachache,the prosecution said. The prosecution alleged that on August 30,2008,Gavandi smothered Aarti with a pillow and killed her. At the time of the incident,Kirti had gone out but both her daughters Anjali and Manjali,aged five,were home.

An FIR was registered and Aarti’s body was sent for postmorten which concluded that she had died due to asphyxiation.

The prosecution had relied on Anjali’s “brief” statement that her father pressed Aarti’s mouth with a pillow. However,the court took note of the fact that during cross-examination,Anjali said that on the date of the incident,her father was not present in the house and she and her sister Manjali were playing outside the house.

The court also took notice of the evidence of postmortem report on the child’s body,conducted by Dr K Mugutrao,and said that asphyxia could also be accidental. Mugutrao had stated that “smothering can occur if the head of the child is covered with pillow when the child is sleeping or the child sleeps with the head under the bedding clothes.”

“Thus,from the medical evidence,it cannot conclusively be said that Aarti died due to smothering as a pillow was pressed on her face,” the judges observed while acquitting Gavandi of all charges.