In a significant ruling on Monday, April 28, 2025, the Supreme Court of India overturned the murder conviction of a woman from Chhattisgarh who had killed her two young daughters, citing a possible temporary mental disorder as the cause of her actions. The woman, an anganwadi worker, had been serving a life sentence for the 2015 incident in which she bludgeoned her daughters, aged five and three, to death with a crowbar. Following the act, she reportedly cried incessantly and claimed she was under the influence of “invisible powers” at the time.​

A bench comprising Justices B.V. Nagarathna and N. Kotiswar Singh noted that there was a complete absence of intent to murder. Justice Singh reasoned that the claim of being possessed by “invisible powers” could be indicative of a temporary medical condition, possibly a sudden bout of mental disorder. The court acknowledged that in rural settings, where superstitions are prevalent, mental health issues are often misunderstood and attributed to supernatural influences. Consequently, the woman’s conviction was reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and she was ordered to be released, having already spent nearly a decade in prison .

This ruling underscores the importance of considering mental health factors in criminal cases and highlights the need for greater awareness and understanding of mental illnesses, especially in rural areas where misconceptions can lead to tragic outcomes.

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