Chennai boy testifies about mother’s murder, dad gets life term

CHENNAI: An eight-year-old boy’s cogent testimony in a trial court has pinned down his father and got him life imprisonment for his mother’s murder.
After sentencing the man, B Suresh, now 40, on Oct 4, sessions judge J Sridevi said the child had become an orphan not only because of the crime but also an “orphan of justice”, as his father is now a lifer.“He faces untold misery and deprivation, despite having done nothing wrong,” she said, while delivering the verdict.
The prosecution said Suresh staged the death of his wife and tried to pass it off as suicide.
Suicide case: Autopsy reveals strangulation
He claimed that while he was in the bathroom, he heard a loud noise outside and later found that his wife, Kalpana, 33, had hanged herself with a sari. The couple has another boy aged 6.
The postmortem report, however, disproved his claim, revealing that the ligature marks on her neck were not caused by a sari. The horizontal marks indicated manual strangulation and matched the width and pattern of a belt, worn by their two children to school, which was recovered from the crime scene.
The autopsy revealed contusions and abrasions on the upper lip, arms, and shoulders, indicating a struggle, consistent with a physical altercation rather than suicide, Dr Ahamed Sheik from Kilpauk Medical College, who performed the autopsy, told the Chennai mahila court.The prosecution presented two key witnesses confirming frequent domestic violence. Their son testified that his father often beat his mother and that on Sept 11, 2018, they had quarrelled. Before leaving for school, he saw his mother in tears.
Another key witness, neighbour Bavani, visited Kalpana’s home 30 minutes before the murder and testified about the morning fight in court. The couple, who married in 2008, began facing issues after Suresh had an extramarital affair and stopped working and supporting the family, said special public prosecutor B Aarathi. When the 8-year-old returned home after school, Bavani took the kids to the hospital to see their mother dead. Since then, they have been in the custody of their grandmother Thilagam.