America
Indo-Canadian woman gets 10 years in jail for killing daughter
By
Gurmukh SinghToronto, Aug 4
A 37-year-old Indo-Canadian woman has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for beating her three-year-old daughter to death.
Nandini
Jha, convicted for second-degree murder of toddler Niyati Jha, faces
deportation to India after serving the jail term because she is a
permanent citizen and does not have Canadian citizenship yet.
Niyati was just two days short of her fourth birthday when she died on September 21, 2011 from severe injuries.
During the trial, the jury heard that the little girl was first brought to a clinic near her home in Mississauga.
Her
body had massive bruises on neck, forearm, thighs, chest, temple and
ears, a fractured rib, spinal injuries and multiple skull fractures.
Multiple
skull fractures caused Niyati's brain to swell to the size of a
football, forcing brain tissue to come out of her left ear.
Shocked
by the extent of injuries, the staff at the clinic called police and
paramedics who rushed the girl to Mississauga Hospital.
But her condition deteriorated and Niyati was rushed to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
She was put on the life support system and declared brain dead the next day.
The mother told the doctors that her daughter had injured herself when a bookshelf fell on her three weeks ago.
However,
during the search of Jha's home, forensic teams found the little girl's
blood on walls, on her clothes and in the laundry room.
During
her testimony, Nandini pleaded not guilty and her husband Sarojan Jha
said he had no knowledge of his daughter's treatment as he worked for
long hours as a computer programmer.
The horrible treatment of
Niyati before her death moved judge Deena Baltman so much that she broke
down while sentencing the mother to 10 years' term.
"It is very difficult to understand this crime. She (Nandini) beat her repeatedly, ultimately to death," the judge said.
The
judge did not accept Nandini's version that her daughter was injured
when a bookcase fell on her. "The falling bookcase was a fiction she
(the mother) created."
The Jha family came to Canada in 2010 with
their two children. Nandini reportedly did not like coming to Canada
and found it difficult to adjust.
The couple have had two more children since Niyati's death.