Scores of women who killed their infants born out of “illicit affairs” in fear and feats of rage are behind bars. However, men have not been jailed for their tacit relationship. Stories of women languishing in jail on the charge of infanticide or those recently freed.
Indira Aryal: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
The society has failed to grasp nature’s explanation for conception. For nature, conceiving is just a technical process: a woman conceives when healthy ovum and sperm meet in a conducive environment. Most societies in the world have added the “legitimacy” dimension to this natural phenomenon.
Called ‘illicit affair’ in the common parlance, reports are abundant of the mother jailed for killing babies born out of such relationship. In order to analyse the gender, social and legal aspects of such affairs and infanticide, we have tried to look into the crimes committed by such women who are languishing behind the bars or have recently been freed.
Names of the people discussed here have been changed even as they have been cleared by the court or have completed their sentence with an aim to not cause any more harm to them due to public knowledge of their past. The names that we identify them with are related to the basic elements of earth, water, air and fire.
Bhumisara Pariyar, 22, of Yashok, Panchthar, is doing her time in Morang Prison. She got close to Akash Pariyar, eight years senior to her, 10 years ago. When Akash returned from Malaysia after working there for three years, the two talked on the phone and decided to marry. The baby boy born after 10 months of marriage is now 7 years old.
Two months after the baby was born, Akash went back to Malaysia. He sent eight to ten thousand rupees to her every month for household expenses. Sometimes he would send her 1 to 1.5 lakh rupees to deposit in bank. In four years, he sent home nearly 1 million rupees.
In her husband’s prolonged absence, she got attracted to her brother-in-law. They had sexual relationship. She got arrested after two years later after revelation that she killed the baby born out of her extra-marital relationship.
“When my husband was away for four years, I missed him a lot,” said Bhumisara. “In course of sharing feelings with his brother, who is my age, sexual relationship began. I had this fate while trying to abort the foetus to hide it from society.”
Even as the Panchthar District Court slapped 20-year jail on her, the Biratnagar High Court slashed it to five years reasoning that the punishment was severe. It has referred the ruling to the Supreme Court to see if it’s consistent with the laws.
Jaljala Lawati, 30, also of Yashok in Panchthar, is in the district prison, Phidim, for infanticide. Her husband Megh Kumar has been doing a job in Malaysia for a decade. Police arrested Jaljala and Bajra Lawati, who is related to her husband, on April 12, 2016 on the charge of killing and burying in the community forest the baby born out of their illicit affair.
“Money he sent to me but the close support and hugs in times of need can’t be bought with his money. Had he visited home at times for his youthful wife, I would not have been in this state now,” Jaljala lamented.
In Jaljala’s case too, the Biratnagar High Court has referred the diminished sentence to the Supreme Court to see if it’s consistent with the laws. District Court Panchthar had sentenced Bajra to one year in jail convicting him of “not informing the police even after witnessing the baby’s murder”. He is now out of prison.
Kiss and kill
Tejkumari Rana of the erstwhile Majhkot VDC of Tanahu kissed her five-month-old daughter three times on the night of December 7, 2010 and tightened a handkerchief around her neck and pressed her palm against her nose and mouth. When others came to know about the murder, they reported the crime to police.
“I got impregnated by Kahar Bahadur Rana, who happens to be my brother-in-law,” 17-year-old Tejkumari has told the court in her statement. “I killed the infant that was conceived without will, had not been christened since there was no situation to reveal her father to the society and I realized that her presence would make the future of a 17-year-old woman dark.”
According to Tejkumari, she had informed Kahar Bahadur that she had been pregnant. He had promised to “settle” it. When her pregnancy was known to the community, they locals had assembled and discussed the case. However, Tejkumari got disheartened when her daughter could not be named even after five months of her birth and killed her.
The Tanahu District Court slapped 10-year jail on her six-and-a-half years ago. She has appealed to the Pokhara Appellate Court pleading: “Social derision enraged me and compelled me to kill my daughter but my punishment has been severe.” Six years ago, agreeing that the sentence had been “severe”, the Pokhara court after eight months of appeal slashed the jail to seven years. The Supreme Court validated the middle court’s order. Tejkumari is now out of prison.
Murder case against Samira
An infant’s body was found in a paddy field at Madhavpur of Pithuwa VDC in Chitwan. Upon inquiry on August 24, 2013 at Bharatpur Hospital, Samira Lamichhane was found to have reached there for treatment after getting rid of her baby. Samira had been staying at her maternal home in Pithuwa for study. She had got pregnant after physical relationship Pawan Tiwari who had told her that he was from Maidi, Dhading.
According to her statement, she delivered the baby in a toilet at her aunt’s house in Pithuwa. She wrapped the baby in cloth and brought it to her room. Having cleaned the toilet, she put the baby in a bucket and threw it in an irrigation channel. She told the family that she had got back after a bath. On the phone, she told Pawan that she had thrown the baby in the water channel after killing it. Police charged the duo with murder.
In this case, the district court ruled that the teenager could not be convicted of killing the infant born live. Its verdict reads- “It can’t be said with certainty that the infant was murdered by Samira Lamichhane who delivered the baby alive before flowing it down the channel in the absence of sufficient evidence attached while filing the case.”
Samira also failed to record in her statement that the infant was stillborn. Postmortem report also showed that the baby had died after birth. This led to the conclusion that the infant had not died from Samira’s deliberate action. While the district court slapped 45-day sentence on Samira and Rs500 in fine, Pawan Tiwari was cleared in the case.
The Hetauda Appellate Court suggested five-year jail on Samira holding that the crime warranted life sentence with confiscation of property. The Supreme Court ruled that Samira’s act was criminal. The sentence was confirmed five years on March 3, 2016. Samira has already has done her time.
Gagan Maya’s statement
Gagan Maya Chalaune of Siddheshwari, Salyan, wrapped the baby she had given birth to in a plastic sheet immediately and buried it by digging a pit under a nearby cave. Goat herders informed the police after they spotted the infant’s body there. After the body was recovered on June 18, 2012, police arrested Ganga Maya based on the locals’ report.
“Garud Dhwaj, teacher at the local school who is a brother-in-law to me, forced on me on the pretext of charging mobile. He had physical relation with me twice–in the fourth and fifth months of the Nepali calendar seven years ago,” said Gagan Maya, 25. “He refused to marry me. He drifted away from me initially. In Nepalgunj, after four months of physical contact with him, doctor said after examination that abortion was not possible then.”
When the condition got serious, he said: “Do whatever you like,” Gagan Maya said in her statement.
She stated that she waited for the baby to be born and that she had thrown it away immediately without cleaning it or cutting the umbilical cord “considering it to be dead since it did not move”. Confessing to her crime, she demanded in her statement that Garud Dhwaj be punished too.
Even if the Salyan District Court found the crime to be punished with life imprisonment with confiscation of property, it slapped 10-year-jail arguing that the sentence would be too harsh on the woman who had had physical relation with another man while her husband was away and got rid of the infant fearing social stigma.
She repeated her claim that she had not murdered the infant and the police had no evidence that she had done so, reiterating that she had dumped the baby considering it to be stillborn since “it did not move its limbs”. The Tulsipur Appellate Court slashed the sentence to seven years in 2013 as the punishment would be “severe” on her. The police that was not satisfied with the sentence and Gagan Maya, who claimed innocence, both reached the Supreme Court.
The apex court upheld the order of the Appellate Court. “Gagan Maya has said she had illicit affair with Garud Dhwaj. A baby is seen to have been born out of the affair,” reads the order. “Gagan Maya fails to submit documents or present witnesses to prove that the baby was a stillborn. Since she concealed her pregnancy and buried the infant with an aim to hide it, it can’t be proved that the baby was stillborn.”
She has got out of the Tulsipur prison after serving her sentence.
Forbidden fruit
A close look at the background shows most such cases of infanticide are caused by extramarital affairs or relations before marriage. The husband of Achala Pariyar of Tarahara, Sunsari, was a wage worker in India. When she was acquainted with Shila Bahadur Rajbanshi who came to her village to work, she developed close relationship with him. This led to her pregnancy. “I was seven months pregnant. I slipped and fell while carrying water to kitchen. The pot fell upon my stomach,” said Achala. “A stillborn was delivered three days later. Shila Bahadur seems to have taken it away and buried.” Achala is doing time in Morang prison after being convicted by the court.
The body of an infant was found at the house of Takaji Prajapati in Khusibu, Kathmandu. Police probed Ghanga Khanal, who lived in that house, on the suspicion of delivering and killing the baby. She had married Samudra Bahadur Thapaliya. When the couple did not have cordial relations, she had come to Kathmandu and started working as waiter at several restaurants.
In due course, she met Sagar Lama. He had sex with her promising to marry her. After she got pregnant, he stopped caring for her. In her statement, Ganga said that she banged the baby after it was born and dumped it into the well.
Arguing that life term with confiscation of property would be severe punishment for her, the district court proposed five-year jail for her. The Patan Appellate Court and the Supreme Court upheld the sentence.
Desperate mothers
Nepal’s laws don’t hold any sexual relation other than incest and that with children illegal. Within the permitted period of pregnancy, the woman is not questioned who impregnated her for abortion. However, when the embryo grows, abortion or infanticide proves such sexual intercourse illegal.
Even in pregnancies resulting from consensual extra-marital relation between a woman and a man, not only the physical burden, the mental and social problems befall mostly the female. Since social and legal acceptance of children born out of such affairs is scarce, babies born to extra-marital relations are essentially losing their lives for no reason. While the society exempts the male involved in physical relation from responsibility, the woman faces the challenges of raising the child and adjusting it to society. Some mothers take such harsh decisions fearing social stigma.
The family story Bhuwan Kumar Pahari of Raigaun in Makawanpur is similar. “When I enquired my wife Jagatmaya if she had got pregnant as rumoured in the village, she denied it. When women found her on December 24, 2009 washing blood-stained clothes, she said she had murdered the baby girl that was born to her around 4 o’clock out of shame. When I also came to know about it, I found the infant buried under stones and leafy branches,” said Bhuwan. In his report filed to police on December 25, 2009, he says: “As per my enquiry, she had got impregnated by Himlal Bholan and got rid of the baby born out of the relationship.” Police found the body as reported.
At the court, Jagatmaya said she had got pregnant due to intercourse with Dudhlal. “The baby was alive. It seemed to have died after I left it,” she said. “I discarded the baby out of shame.” Himlal was also made a defendant in the case. In her statement, Jagatmaya said her husband had abandoned her after marrying another woman. Arguing that life imprisonment with confiscation of property would be severe on her, the Makwanpur district court slapped a seven-year jail on her. Himlal got acquitted.
Some adolescent girls have demonstrated the courage to deliver babies conceived from relations not recognized by the society. But the challenges they have to take for their young ones are tough. They face troubles ranging from admitting the child to school to getting the citizenship certificate. According to sociologist Nirmala Dhakal, unable to cope with the difficult situation, some women develop a criminal attitude.
“In extramarital relationship, the society holds only the woman responsible. When the incident becomes public, the society does not accept the woman, making her tolerate neglect,” sociologist Dhakal said. “If the society accepted the women, there would be little chance for such incidents. Cases of murder would be fewer still.” Citing the incidents of some women killing themselves together with their children, she suggested that such problems should be addressed while amending the family law.
200 behind bars
Among the 20,328 prisoners across the country, 19,021 are male. The number of female detainees is 1,307, according to the Prison Management Department. According to Krishna Bahadur Katuwal, the director and spokesman for the department, 363 women are doing time on the charge of murder. The department has no exact data on the number of women who were jailed for murdering their own babies.
“It’s not possible to distinguish who’s doing time for murdering their babies without looking at individual cases,” said Katuwal. “A cursory look leads us to guess that more than half of the women jailed for murder are related to infanticide.”
By this estimate, more than 200 women are behind the bars on the charge of killing their own babies across the country.
Even if life imprisonment is proposed as punishment for crimes of infanticide, the sentence is reduced to seven to ten years upon consideration that the punishment is “severe”. According to prison department spokesperson Katuwal, before the new Criminal Code came into force on August 17, 2018, the sentence of prisoners “having good conduct” was waived after they had completed 40 per cent of their jail term. With the provision, those jailed on charge of infanticide are released between two to four years in jail. Based on this proposition, 40 to 50 women land in jail every after being convicted of infanticide.
Free men
According to the criminal justice system, punishment is slapped on the one who is guilty. Those who have no direct or indirect involvement deserve no penalty. From this principle, in the killing of babies born out of socially unacceptable relations, the mother is mostly involved. The men involved in copulation are out of the social glare, and hence free of responsibility for the newborn. Cornered from all sides, the women are tempted to take their baby’s life in a bid to defend their dignity.
According to Senior Advocate Mira Dhungana, women are not solely responsible for such crimes. The legal and social practices burden women with providing the evidence for their claim. “Even as they have full information about the incident, they are unable to provide all details about the partner in crime. Even when they provide information, they don’t believe it so it doesn’t become credible,” said Dhungana, who defends such cases. “While investigating the case, authorities hold the woman responsible for the crime. The area of police investigation also seems to be narrow.”
In a study conducted by Dhungana’s team in 14 districts two years ago, two men were found in jail for their involvement in killing infants. In some cases, women have been jailed even for stillbirth due to false reports filed by family members against the postpartum woman.
In the Tanahu incident of incest, Tej Kumari had been looking after the baby after getting compensation from the other guilty party as he happened to be from the same family. “The son of my uncle impregnated me, raping me when nobody else was home,” said Tej Kumari. “When I took the matter with him later, he asked me to keep quiet. He would manage it.”
She was unable to abort the pregnancy. The court had summoned Kahar Bahadur but he had not presented himself. Besides infanticide, the case of incest was also sub judice in court. Kahar Bahadur had also been made a defendant in the case but there is no mention of him in the court’s verdict.
According to Rama Parajuli, who has been defending such cases on the government’s side, the court generally views such incidents in three ways. The first test is who—the male or the female—was responsible for the baby’s death. Joint Attorney General Parajuli says: “Even if the male incited the murder of the baby born out of an illicit affair, punishment for him can’t be recommended unless investigation proves his role. The issue is decided only when all evidence is gathered. Life imprisonment is slapped only when murder is proven.”
According to former DIG Hemanta Malla, the mother is often found to have murdered her child because of Nepal’s social situation and legal provisions. “Relations are found to be consensual that result in pregnancy. As long as the male is not involved in murdering the baby, there is no legal provision for linking him with the criminal responsibility only for the ‘physical contact’,” said Malla. “Even the women free of criminal mentality deem getting rid of the baby as the immediate solution due to social fears. And such incidents repeat.”
Malla has the experience of finding rarely the involvement of males in such incidents. The social structure puts all the blame related to premarital relation and its consequences on women. By not readily accepting such children the society is promoting such incidents indirectly.
