Why a woman strangled her newborn with earphone cables, and why a court let her off

On January 7, 2021 — 23 days after the infant was found dead —Badiadka Police arrested the child's 26-year-old mother for maternal filicide, or the act of a mother killing her own child.

Nearly four years later, on December 12, 2024, an additional sessions court in Kasaragod acquitted the woman despite the prosecution claiming they had proven beyond reasonable doubt that she killed the child.

A Manoj, the Additional Sessions Judge-I, let off the woman because the police failed to conduct a psychiatric evaluation after her arrest. "We proved in court that she murdered the child, and we proved the child was hers. But she was acquitted due to a procedural lapse by the investigation team," said public prosecutor