HC upholds life term for dad who killed toddler

BENGALURU: The Karnataka high court has upheld the life sentence awarded to a man who killed his 16-month-old son by feeding him water laced with anti-retroviral (HIV) drugs, suspecting he wasn't his biological father.
A division bench of justices Ravi Malimath and K Somashekar affirmed the September 27, 2012 verdict of a fast-track court holding Ravi alias Battery Ravi guilty of killing his son.

"There may be some discrepancies in the evidence of some witnesses who had been treated as hostile, but that of the prosecution witnesses, the mother, a child witness, the investigating officer, the doctor who conducted autopsy and a retired doctor is clinching and proves the guilt of the accused," the bench observed in its order.

The trial court had said Ravi, a resident of Saraswathipuram Colony, Hunsur in Mysuru district, shouldn't be released for the rest of his life.

According to the prosecution, around 10am on June 16, 2011, Ravi took his second child, Nishor, from the maternal house of his wife on the pretext of buying him eatables. It is said that he took Nishor (along with his sister-in-law's son) to an under-construction Maratha community hall near Shanimahathma temple in Hunsur town. Suspecting that Nishor was not born to him, Ravi made the child drink water mixed with powdered anti-retroviral tablets like Zidovudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine.

Nishor was frothing when Ravi brought him back to his wife and was immediately rushed to the government hospital in Hunsur and later taken to KR Hospital, Msyuru, where he died.

The wife testified that when she was pregnant with her second child, Ravi abandoned her after getting to know that she had a hole in her heart, forcing her to live with her parents.

She further said Ravi told her family that she should be sent back only when she recovers and didn't allow her in his house even when there was a reconciliation.

The son of Ravi's sister-in-law, an eyewitness, testified that his uncle took him along with Nishor to a bakery, bought them eatables and juice and then took them to the Maratha community hall where he made Nishor drink water laced with powdered tablets in a steel glass.

The investigating officer testified that Ravi alone could have got those anti-retroviral drugs, which are prescribed for a person with HIV, as the accused in his voluntary statement said his parents were taking the drugs regularly. The doctor testified that he was treating Ravi's father (now dead), an HIV-positive patient, and had prescribed the tablets to him.