Kollam (Kerala) | A sessions court in Kerala on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a woman to life imprisonment for killing her newborn baby and burying the body in 2018 near Puthur here.

Kollam Additional Sessions Judge I P N Vinod sentenced the 29-year-old woman to life in prison for the offence under section 302 (murder) of the IPC and also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on her, public prosecutor (PP) Sicin G Mundakkal said.

The infant's three-day old partially decomposed body with arms and legs allegedly bitten off by dogs was found in a field near a temple by Kudumbashree workers who had alerted the police.

The woman had given birth at a relative's home, suffocated the infant to death and buried the body in the yard of the house, the prosecutor said.

However, stray dogs dug up the body and dragged it to the field from where it was found.

According to the prosecutor, the court acquitted the woman's husband who was accused of concealing the pregnancy and attempting to get it aborted twice.

There was no evidence linking him to the killing of the baby or the burying of the body. The woman was convicted based on circumstantial and scientific evidence.

Her medical examination at that time showed that she had recently given birth and DNA evidence proved that the infant was hers, he said.

The couple, who already had a two-and-a-half year old son, concealed the pregnancy when it was detected in October 2017 and tried to get it aborted twice at two hospitals, the PP said. But the hospitals refused to do so.

Subsequently, when the woman gave birth on April 17, 2018, she killed the baby and buried the body