Bengaluru: Woman charged with murder for throwing autistic child from 4th floor

Police have charged a dentist with murder for throwing her four-year-old autistic daughter from the fourth floor of an apartment complex in central Bengaluru about three months ago.

In the 193-page charge sheet filed in the 9th ACMM court on November 3, police included the mother’s statement that she killed the child because she didn’t want to sacrifice her professional and personal life.

Driti Balakrishna aka Dhruti aka Duthi B was the only child of Kiran Balakrishna and Dr Sushma Bhardwaj. She suffered from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

The couple had moved to Bengaluru from London after Driti was diagnosed with ASD. Medical treatment was expensive in London, and Sushma didn’t want to spend more money on Driti’s care, the charge sheet states.

Sushma told the police that she had been depressed because of her daughter’s health.

However, a medical examination by Nimhans doctors concluded that she was fit and fine when she committed the murder. She, however, did take medicines for depression previously. The medical report has been included in the charge sheet.

According to the charge sheet, Sushma deliberately killed her daughter because she didn’t want to sacrifice her professional and personal life.

Police have named nearly 40 witnesses, including Kiran and his mother, in the charge sheet. CCTV footage of Sushma throwing the girl and the statements of two eyewitnesses who saw the child being thrown off the building are also part of the charge sheet.

Police have also submitted CCTV footage of Sushma abandoning Driti at the KSR Bengaluru railway station a month before the murder and going home. The girl was rescued by a ticket collector posted on an Odisha-bound train.

The charge sheet was filed by Rajesh R, the inspector of the Sampangiram Nagar police station, in whose jurisdiction the murder occurred.