Pune: A 28-year-old woman has been sentenced to life imprisonment for strangling her two young children, aged two and three-and-a-half years, and concealing their bodies in a grassy patch near a labour camp in Mulshi taluka in Jan 2022.Additional sessions judge of Pune Sachin B Bhansali, in a judgment on Oct 31, convicted Poonam Sanjay Solanki of murdering her children, Chanda and Anand, and causing disappearance of evidence. The court awarded life imprisonment for both murders, with the sentences to run concurrently, along with three years’ rigorous imprisonment for concealing the bodies.The incident took place on Jan 5, 2022, two days after the family had migrated from Madhya Pradesh to Pune in search of work and joined a construction site in Vadgaon, Mulshi. Poonam allegedly took the children from their labour camp towards a nearby forest. Her husband, who had left for work that morning, returned around 1pm to find them missing. Their bodies were later found concealed in the grass, with ropes around their necks. Postmortem examinations confirmed that both had died of strangulation.The prosecution was represented by assistant public prosecutors Anilkumar Varma and V M Fargade, while advocate S C Dumbare appeared for the accused.The prosecution relied on the testimony of a 12-year-old cousin of the children, who had seen Poonam carrying the younger child and dragging the elder one towards the forest. The court also accepted her extra-judicial confession to the local Police Patil, along with medical evidence and other corroborative circumstances. It held that the child’s testimony was natural and credible, with no material to suggest tutoring.The court referred to evidence that Poonam frequently beat the children over trivial issues. It observed that matrimonial discord, poverty and socio-economic frustration, along with the responsibility of raising two young children, provided a plausible background to the crime. The Police Patil had testified that Poonam confessed to killing the children with a rope following a quarrel with her husband.While rejecting the prosecution’s demand for the death penalty, the court held that the case did not fall under the rarest of rare category. It observed that the murders were not committed in an “exceptionally brutal, grotesque or diabolical manner” to arouse extreme public indignation. The court also noted that the crime appeared to stem from “matrimonial discord and socio-economic frustration rather than depravity”.“Sentencing is not a mere cry for vengeance but has to be guided by principles of proportionality, reformation and deterrence,” the court observed.The court also considered her socio-economic background, noting that she was a migrant labourer from a deprived background, had been in prison since 2022 and had no source of income. It directed that the fine, if recovered, be paid to the children’s father as compensation.
