Sooraj was convicted by the additional sessions court in South Kerala's Kollam for the murder of his wife 25-year-old wife Uthra.
A Kerala court on Monday held as guilty a man who had killed his differently-abled wife by getting her bitten by a snake.
Sooraj was convicted by the additional sessions court in South Kerala's Kollam for the murder of his wife 25-year-old wife Uthra.
The case had sent shockwaves across Kerala after it emerged that Sooraj had deliberately released a king cobra on his wife allegedly over a property dispute in May last year. In fact, that was the second attempt made by Sooraj. In the first murder attempt, investigations revealed that Sooraj tried to kill Uthra using a viper snake.
Following Uthra's death, her family lodged a police complaint alleging foul play and dowry harassment.
Special Public Prosecutor Mohanraj argued that the accused who committed such a brutal murder deserves the most severe punishment.
The prosecution argued that the sentencing in the case, which is take place on Wednesday, should send the right message to society. The prosecution has sought the death penalty, citing this as the rarest of rare cases.
The investigation into the Uthra murder case is now a case study as part of IPS training.
There have been two previously reported murders using snakes in the country. Both these cases were from Maharashtra. In Pune, a snake was allegedly used by a wife and her lover to kill her husband, while in Nagpur, a snake was allegedly used for committing murder over property. However, in both cases, the trial courts acquitted the accused due to lack of evidence.
The fact that the Kerala Police not only cracked the case using scientific methods but also got a conviction is remarkable.
The police investigation had revealed that a snake handler identified as Suresh had sold the two snakes to Sooraj for Rs 10,000. Suresh later testified the same in court and that the latter knew how to handle them. The court accepted Suresh's statement that he did not know that Suraj had bought the snakes to try and kill his wife.
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