Hyderabad: In a sensational verdict, a local court in Suryapet district awarded a death penalty to a 32-year-old woman for killing her seven-month-old baby girl and indulging in human sacrifice while performing puja to get rid of ‘sarpadosha’. She performed the puja at her house while watching Youtube.
Suryapet district first additional sessions court judge Dr. Shyamasri held the accused woman Bhanotu Bharathi alias Lasya as guilty and pronounced the verdict. The court said it was the rarest of the rare case.
The incident that happened at Mekapati thanda in Kodada in April 2021 became sensational prompting the police to probe the case in detail. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle on Saturday, Munagala Sub-Inspector B Praveen Kumar, who responded immediately after getting information about the incident from villagers while working at Mothe police station, said the accused woman committed the crime in a gory manner when her husband was away from the house.
The murder came to light when a few children playing the residence of Bharathi heard unusual sounds from the house and informed elders, who alerted the police. A police team led by Praveen Kumar rushed to the house and found vermillion and turmeric powder all over the room along with serious stab wounds on the baby.
“By the time we rushed to the spot the baby was dead with severe stab wounds inflicted on the child. A knife was also found at the spot,” he said, adding that a murder case was booked against the woman and arrested.
Within a month after her arrest, the police filed a charge-sheet and trial started later. The report of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Hyderabad and clues collected from the spot, especially the knife with blood stains in addition to eyewitnesses’ account enabled the police to prove the woman as guilty in the case. After the murder case, the woman tried to attack her husband also. In that case, the woman got one year imprisonment.
