Madurai, Feb 15 (PTI) Strongly condemning the antipathy towards girl children, the Madras High Court today dismissed an appeal filed by a father, who was convicted and sentenced to double life imprisonment for poisoning his two daughters to death. Describing the case as "most unfortunate", Justices N Paul Vasanthakumar and P Devadass said parents were feeling girls "burdensome" at a time when they were ahead of men in many fields. "The girls play multifarious roles. No religion preaches killing of children because they are born females. In fact they advocate treating them as god themselves," the court said. Instead of killing the girls, they could have been given in adoption to a couple who did not have chidren, it said. The accused, Jeyaraj, belonging to Sankarankovil taluk in Tirunelveli district, had longed for a male child and he was even willing to marry another woman for the purpose, the court said. Jeyaraj also suspected the fidelity of his wife, which strained relationships between the two, the prosecution said. According to prosecution, Jeyaraj had, on March 31, 2009, made his daughters Gnanaselvi (10) and Selvipriya (7) drink poisoned soft drinks. He had also tried to make his wife drink it, but she refused, the prosecution said. The children were rushed to hospital by Jeyaraj's brother-in-law, but had died on the same day. The Judges said circumstances, witnesses and evidence formed a complete chain without any missing link and "unerringly" proceeded towards the accused as the killer of the children. Stating that the prosecution had established the case beyond doubt, the Judges dismissed the appeal and confirmed the double life sentence passed by the District Sessions Judge at Srivilliputhur on Sept 30, 2010.
