Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (RJP)
Udupi, Oct 15: Anand Poojary from Udupi, who was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of killing his foster mother eight years ago, has been absolved and set free by the Supreme Court.
The death of Dorothy Cutinho, Anand’s foster mother had taken place in 2006. Anand was charged for the murder and was later convicted.
Dorothy Cutinho, a retired school teacher was looking after Anand, her student, as her own child in Nejar. Her only brother who lived with her was mentally challenged. She also had two foster brothers who lived away from her. Dorothy had willed all her property to Anand subject to a condition that he should marry a Christian woman.
On March 1, 2006, Dorothy died after complaining of chest pain in a hospital. The cause of death was determined as cardiac arrest by the doctors initially. But after a few days the doctors who performed post-mortem said that she had been strangulated.
Anand was arrested after Dorothy’s foster brothers lodged a complaint. He was convicted in the trial court in December 2008 and sentenced to life.
A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and A K Sikri has now set aside the judgments of the Karnataka High Court and the trial court that held Anand Poojary guilty of the murder of Dorothy Cutinho.
The apex court said that as the relationship between the deceased and her foster son was pure like that of mother and son, he would not have killed her. The court believed that Dorothy was in her advanced age with hypertension, depression, alcoholism and other age related ailments. Besides, killing Dorothy would not have brought him her wealth as he had been unwilling to marry a Christian woman as per Dorothy's condition, the bench said.
The court also noted that the assets of Dorothy were disposed of by her foster brothers even before the verdict of the trial was delivered. The court said that Anand was implicated to rob him of his wealth left by his foster mother.