Praneeta Prakash 
[File Photo]
A mother charged with the murder of her newborn baby girl in December 2022 has been acquitted by the Labasa High Court.
The court heard that on 15th December, the woman’s husband who was at work received a call that his wife was unwell and when he reached home he found her in their bedroom covered in blood.
She was taken to the Labasa Hospital and after examining her, the doctors asked the husband about their baby’s whereabouts.
The court heard that the husband was shocked to hear that because he was not aware that his wife was pregnant as she had never informed him.
The matter was then reported to police and a search was conducted.
The police found the baby a day later wrapped in a wet blanket in a bucket under the accused’s bed.
During the pre-trial stages the woman’s lawyer, John Prasad told the court that his client collapsed inside her bedroom and the next thing she remembered was waking up in the hospital.
The High Court Judge stated that he accepted the doctor’s unchallenged evidence that the baby died of asphyxia as a result of suffocation.
The Judge said that he found that the baby suffocated as a result of fluid in her airways.
Justice Lee Burney also said that the fact that the woman did not tell the doctors that she had given birth at home earlier in the day was not something that he could hold against her.
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