Thane woman gets life term for 18-month-old daughter's murder in 2024

Thane,UPDATED: Jun 25, 2026 12:45 IST

A Thane court has sentenced a 28-year-old woman to life imprisonment for murdering her 18-month-old daughter in 2024, while her husband has been given four years in jail for trying to cover up the crime by destroying evidence and arranging a hurried burial of the child. Sessions Judge RD Sawant delivered the verdict on Wednesday.

The court rejected the defence claim that the child had died of Epidermolysis Bullosa, a rare genetic skin disorder. It also turned down the prosecution's plea to treat the case as the 'rarest of rare' and award capital punishment, saying rigorous life imprisonment would meet the ends of justice.

Noorani (Khatun) Jahid Shaikh was convicted under IPC section 302 for murder. Her husband, Jahid Salamat Shaikh, was convicted under IPC section 201 for causing the disappearance of evidence to screen the offender.

The crime took place at the couple's home in Mumbra in Thane district between March 18 and 19, 2024. It came to light after police received an anonymous complaint along with photographs, which led to a detailed forensic probe and the exhumation of the toddler's body from a local graveyard.

The prosecution relied on medical evidence and the statements of the couple's two older daughters, who told the court they had seen their mother attack the infant with a sharp kitchen knife.

The court also noted that one of the two girls was herself a victim of domestic violence. Additional Public Prosecutor Rashmi Kshirsagar examined 16 witnesses to prove the charges.

Rejecting the defence version of a natural death, the court relied on medical jurisprudence presented by the doctor who carried out the post-mortem after the body was exhumed. The report recorded 14 distinct sharp incised wounds on the child's scalp and neck, which the court said were not consistent with any skin ailment.

The judge observed that when an offence is committed in complete secrecy inside a house, the evidence required cannot be of the same degree as in other cases of circumstantial evidence. The court said the accused cannot get away with an explanation that is not reasonable and probable.

It added that the manner and circumstances of the child's death were within the special knowledge of the accused and, under Section 106 of the Evidence Act, the burden of proving the cause of death in their house was on them. Their failure to discharge that burden provided an additional link in the prosecution's case, the court said.

On the father's role, the court said there was no material to show that he had caused any injury to the child and that his immediate response after the stabbing was to seek emergency medical treatment rather than to cover up the crime.

However, after the child died, he actively helped his wife by obtaining a death certificate on a false history and arranging a hurried burial to shield the offence from legal punishment, the court said.

Accepting the evidence of the minor daughters, it held that the testimony of a competent and reliable child witness can by itself form the basis of a conviction. The case ended with the mother being sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and the father to four years for destroying evidence and helping conceal the crime.

- Ends