The Madras High Court has acquitted a woman, who had killed her husband to prevent him from sexually assaulting their 21-year-old daughter in 2022 by quashing the murder case registered against her.

Holding that the right to private defence is available not only to a victim of sexual assault but also to those who rescue her, Justice G Jayachandran quashed the murder case against the woman, a resident of Otteri in the city. Even if the woman admitted to have committed the offence, she could not be prosecuted for murder of the aggressor, the judge made it clear citing a relevant section of the IPC (Section 97).

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The Judge said the woman could be exempted from punishment since she had to save the daughter.

As per the counter affidavit of the police, the deceased was lying on his daughter gagging her mouth. On hearing her cries, the mother rushed to her rescue and tried to push the drunken man away. When she couldn’t, she took a knife and hit him in the head. But, when he persisted she picked up a hammer and smashed his head with it resulting in his instant death. The police registered a murder case against her.

The findings of the postmortem report has been substantiated by the statement given by the women to the police and corroborated by the statements made by her daughter before a magistrate under sections 161 and 164 of the CrPC, the Judge pointed out and said it is clearly evident from the records that the deceased father was in an inebriated condition and attempted to sexually assault his own daughter.

The mother, who is the petitioner, left with no option but to commit the offence to save the honour of her daughter, the Judge added.