Criminal charges dropped against India-born killer mom in Canada

Toronto, June 4 :

An India-born woman in Canada, who admitted to killing her two-month-old daughter three years ago, was Tuesday declared not criminally responsible for the death as she suffers from a mental disorder, a media report said.

The Montreal court in the Canadian province of Quebec also ordered that Alpabahen Patel be detained at the university hospital and continue to undergo evaluations, The Gazette reported Tuesday.

Alpabahen Patel, 30, was hospitalised after her husband discovered the body of their two-month-old baby in their apartment in eastern Montreal Dec 23, 2011.

Patel was arrested and charged with the second degree murder of her daughter, Trishna Shankar in Jan 2012.

Patel was later interrogated by police and admitted to suffocating her baby to death with a blanket.

In May 2012, a psychiatrist evaluated Patel to determine if she could eventually be found criminally responsible of causing her daughter’s death.

In the report presented before the court, it was concluded that the accused was suffering from severe depression as well as visual and auditory hallucinations.

At the moment she choked her child, the accused believed she was putting her in the hands of the Hindu goddess Durga Mata because she was incapable of taking care of her child, the court heard.

She believed the goddess would give her back her child later when her health had improved, it added.

The India-born Patel arrived in Canada nine years ago and suffered from the disorder years before she became pregnant.

She was also hospitalised shortly after she began living in Montreal in 2007.

Another psychiatric evaluation conducted at the Philippe Pinel Institute in 2013, also pointed out that she was mentally unstable.

(IANS)