Rare Case: Woman Gets Death Penalty for Daughter’s Sacrificial Killing in Telangana

In a sensational verdict, the Suryapet court has sentenced a woman named B. Bharathi to death for the human sacrifice of her own infant daughter in 2021. The court considered the case rare and heinous, handing down the capital punishment after examining all the evidence.

The incident occurred on April 15, 2021, in Mekalapatti Tanda of Mothey Mandal. Bharathi, reportedly motivated by a belief that she was afflicted with a ‘sarpa dosham’ (a curse associated with serpents), performed special rituals at her home. During the course of the rituals, she slit the throat of her seven-month-old baby girl and also severed the child’s tongue.

At the time of the incident, only her husband Krishna and his ailing father were present in the house. Hearing the baby cry, the father-in-law rose to investigate and saw Bharathi emerging from the room covered in blood. Bharathi claimed she had offered the child as a sacrifice to deities to eliminate the serpent curse.

The father-in-law immediately informed his son Krishna. Krishna then alerted relatives and neighbours, and they rushed the infant to the hospital. However, doctors confirmed that the baby had already died.

Mothey police arrested Bharathi, and during the investigation, they examined ten witnesses. Krishna stated that Bharathi committed the crime in an attempt to rid herself of the sarpa dosham.

He further recounted another violent incident from 2023, when Bharathi attacked him on the head with a heavy grinding stone while he was asleep. Krishna sustained serious injuries in that attack, and Bharathi was sentenced to one year in prison for the attack.

Bharathi and Krishna were classmates in school. Due to financial difficulties, Bharathi had initially married another man, but the marriage ended in divorce following personal disagreements. She later married Krishna in 2019. Krishna revealed that Bharathi had suffered from mental health issues before their marriage and had even consulted psychiatric doctors in Khammam.

Currently, Bharathi is incarcerated in the Chanchalguda Women’s Prison. After reviewing all the testimonies and evidence, the court concluded that the case was exceptional in its brutality and therefore warranted the death penalty.