A 40-year-old woman who spent four years in jail after being convicted of murdering her mother-in-law was acquitted after the court noted that the ailing senior citizen’s death could have been accidental. The court granted relief to the woman, observing that disagreements over family or financial matters alone are insufficient to establish a motive for committing the grave crime of murdering a family member.
The victim, Anthoni Muthuswami, was a heart patient, and was found dead in her home in 2021. It was later alleged that she was killed because of the financial strain on the family due to her cardiac issues, Times Of India reported.
“It is observed that the probability of defence of accidental strangulation is made out, whereas the prosecution has failed to establish that the accused caused injuries to Anthoni, resulting in her death. As such, it is not the death caused by any person or by any human intervention, and as such, it is not proved to be a homicidal death,” additional sessions judge Shayana V Patil said.
The complaint against Shanti Muthuswami was filed by her husband Murugan Muthuswami, who suspected that his wife killed his mother over a financial dispute. He later turned hostile along with his two daughters.
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The judge, while referring to the testimony of Shanti’s daughter, Priyanka Muthuswami, who discovered her grandmother’s body upon returning home, noted that it can be understood that she wants to protect her mother from any prosecution, which likely caused her to change her statement by not saying anything against the accused.
“Under such circumstances, the testimony of PW 2 (prosecution witness 2, Priyanka) cannot be relied upon in order to ascertain any material aspect of the prosecution case like the previous conduct of the accused or even the situation prevalent on the spot when she returned home,” the judge said.
The judge stated that according to the medical experts, accidental strangulation appears as the cause of death. But it was also noted that the prosecution failed to prove that Anthoni’s death was caused due to the injuries, the TOI report stated.
According to the prosecution, Murugan lived in Mumbai with his wife, Shanti, and their two daughters. Both parents, along with their elder daughter, worked to make ends meet. Murugan’s mother, Anthoni, stayed back in their hometown, where she supported herself through farm work.
Tensions reportedly arose in the family when Shanti began asking her mother-in-law for money to pay their daughter’s school fees, which led to frequent arguments. Around this time, Anthoni confided in her son that she was feeling unwell and struggling with asthma. When Murugan mentioned his plan to visit her, Shanti opposed it. Therefore, Murugan asked his mother to come to Mumbai for medical treatment.
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