By IANS,
Vancouver : After denying any role in her infant son’s death by drowning in their family pool for six long years, an Indian Canadian woman here has pleaded guilty to infanticide.
Jasvinder Kaur Kang, 43, was Thursday given a two-year conditional sentence for placing her four-month-old son Jasvir in their backyard pool in Surrey city near here. She will also be kept under probation for three years.
Earlier, Kang faced the serious charge of second-degree murder, which could have put her behind bars with no chance of parole for 10 years. However, the charge has been downgraded to infanticide.
Before she pleaded guilty, the woman maintained that her infant was taken away by a panhandler and put in the pool where his body was found floating.
The infant, who survived an attack of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) one month after his birth, was left with a long-term damage to his brain.
SIDS, also known as crib death, refers to the sudden and unexpected death of an infant under one year of age. Such unexplained deaths occur while the child is sleeping.
The court heard how Kang and her husband tried to have a child for seven years and then how the new-born suffered a paralysing attack of SIDS one month after his birth, and how it left his mother devastated.
Considering her unique circumstances, both prosecution and defence lawyers asked Judge Kenneth Ball of the British Columbia Provincial Court to give Kang a conditional sentence.
Handing down a two-year conditional sentence, the judge has also ordered that Kang is not allowed to take care children below the age of one.
Further, if she becomes pregnant again she will have to notify the authorities and undergo psychiatric counselling.