The Sessions Court on November 2 sentenced a 38-year-old woman to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment for killing her 13-year-old partially-disabled son with a cricket bat in August 2015.

Rakhi Balpande, a resident of Tingre Nagar Vishrantwadi and an admin officer with a multinational firm, had a dispute with her husband, Tarun. Rakhi would live with her 13-year-old son Chaitanya in rented accommodation.

Chaitanya died on August 5 due to massive internal injuries. Rakhi first claimed unconvincingly that he had fallen in the bathroom. On questioning, she admitted that she had beaten him. The child had been unconscious for hours before she took him to the hospital.

It was revealed that Rakhi wanted her son out of the way so that she could get Rs 10 lakh in insurance. According to the prosecution's case, Rakhi was having an affair with her landlord, Sumit More. When Rakhi realised that Chaitanya knew of her affair, she feared that she would be exposed. Hence, she thrashed him with help from More. However, the court acquitted More.

District Government Pleader Ujwala Pawar, who represented the prosecution, argued that the mother should get maximum punishment as she had brutally killed her son who was a minor and disabled. However, the Sessions Court found Rakhi guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced her only to 10 years in prison.