Throwing child on floor is attempt to murder: Madhya Pradesh High Court

Throwing a toddler on the floor would amount to the offence of attempt to murder, the Madhya Pradesh High Cour recently held while refusing to quash a First Information Report (FIR) against a woman [Bharti Patel vs State of Madhya Pradesh]..The accused, Bharti Patel, was booked under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code in 2022 after she allegedly threw her own child on the floor in a courtroom where her plea for maintenance from her husband was being heard.Justice Gurpal Singh Ahluwalia said the woman had no authority to throw the child on the floor and to throw a paperweight towards him.The Court opined that there was a clear intention to kill the child."Throwing a 13 months old child on the floor by itself would amount to attempt to murder and throwing a paperweight towards his head would further aggravate the situation," it said..Patel approached the Court for quashing of the case. Her counsel argued that the FIR had been registered by a practicing lawyer as a counter blast to an earlier incident. However, the Court at the outset said that the facts of the matter disclosed a sorry state of affairs. It noted that the woman had thrown the child on the floor as she blamed him for her troubles. "(She) threw a paperweight towards her child by saying that today she would kill him. However, paperweight fell on the floor by passing near temporal region of the child, as a result he survived, otherwise, he would have died," it noted..The Court also found that Patel had already been issued a notice under Section 12 of the Court of Contempt Act for her conduct during the proceedings before the magisterial court."She was asked to give her evidence but she stated that she does not want to give her statement and insisted that respondent / her husband should be kept present personally in the Court. When the Court tried to convince her that her husband has come out of jail on bail just few days back and one more opportunity should be granted to him for payment of arrears but she started shouting in the court itself which was contrary to the decency of the Court and threw her 13 months old child on the floor.".The Court also noted that despite the Presiding Officer repeatedly having told her to pick up the child, she refused to do so and did not even attempt to stop him from crying.Patel did not improve her conduct in spite of repeated instructions given by the court and disrupted the proceedings, it said."Thus, it is clear that applicant was creating all source of ruckus in the court. She made an attempt to kill her own child. Only a proceeding under Section 125 of CrPC was going on. If the applicant was not convinced with any order passed by the court, then she had an opportunity to assail the same before the higher Court but she cannot pressurise the court to pass an order in her favour," the Court observed..Considering these circumstances, Justice Ahluwalia opined that it cannot be said that the FIR against Patel was an afterthought and false."Accordingly, this Court is of the considered opinion that no sympathetic view can be adopted in the facts and circumstances of the case. The petition stands dismissed," the bench ordered..Advocate Bheem Choudhary appeared for the petitioner.Deputy Government Advocate Swati Aseem George represented the State..[Read Judgment]