Child killer denied full parole over refusal to take responsibility for actions

An Ontario woman serving a life sentence for the murder of an eight-year-old boy has once again been denied full parole after authorities found she continued to deflect responsibility for her actions.

Amina Chaudhary, 55, who married another inmate and had three children while behind bars, has been on day parole and living in a halfway house for a year.

The Parole Board of Canada last week rejected her application for full parole, saying she consistently blames others for her fate.

Chaudhary was convicted in 1984 of killing her former lover’s nephew but maintains her innocence and is seeking a ministerial review of her case, having already exhausted other legal options.

She met her husband, Anees Chaudhary  — also a convicted murderer — while in pre-trial custody, eventually giving birth to three now-adult children who were raised by friends or the state.

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Documents show Chaudhary sought release to go live with her husband, who is already on parole and recently suffered a stroke, leaving him in need of care and unable to run his limousine business.

But in its decision, the board raised concerns about Chaudhary’s enduring belief in her own innocence and her general evasiveness when confronted about her behaviour.

The two-member panel also noted Chaudhary, who faces deportation, had requested a transfer to another halfway house on pretense of wanting to be closer to her family when in fact she sought to distance herself from a parole officer who was challenging her immigration case.

“While you have not been problematic on release, and have utilized your brief period on day parole to predominantly care for your husband, the board continues to have serious concerns regarding your lack of insight in your offence cycle, your shifting evasive and vague answers that occur with some regularity and your documented attempts at manipulation which you simply deny,” the decision reads.

“As noted the board has no confidence that your risk factors have been identified and mitigated given your persistent denial of the index offence.”

Chaudhary was previously granted day parole and her husband full parole but both were taken back into custody in 2010 over concerns about financial irregularities, though no charges were laid.

Chaudhary was also released on day parole for six months in 2012 but spent that time in custody on a deportation order, which immigration officials have not been able to enforce because neither India nor the U.K. will issue her travel documents.

Her last attempt at obtaining full parole led to her release on day parole last year. In November, the Correctional Service of Canada recommended that be upgraded to full parole, but the board instead extended her day parole for another six months and scheduled a hearing to weigh a possible change.

At her hearing last week, she again denied committing the murder but would not say who she believes the killer to be.

“Given your protestations of innocence and your decades-long fight to clear your name it seems somewhat implausible that you would not share this information,” the board said.

Prosecutors argued a vengeful rage prompted Chaudhary to slay eight-year-old Rajesh Gupta, who was left in her care while his uncle, her ex-lover, travelled to India for an arranged marriage to another woman.

Gupta was strangled in February 1982 with the drawstring cord of his ski jacket hood, packed in a cardboard box and dumped in a remote section of east Toronto where the former couple used to meet.

Chaudhary has said that she was pregnant and recovering from an arm wound at the time and would not have been able to kill a struggling boy.

At her trial, however, now-disgraced pathologist Charles Smith testified that autopsy photos showed damage to Gupta’s skull indicating the boy had been knocked out before he was murdered.

Attempts to find the photos and have them re-examined were unsuccessful, and eventually her file with the Innocence Project was closed.

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press

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