Uthra murder case: Husband Sooraj awarded life sentence for killing wife using cobra
Sooraj has been sentenced to life imprisonment with Rs 5 lakh for offence under section 302 of the IPC, jail term for life.
FollowA Kollam court on Wednesday awarded Sooraj S Kumar life imprisonment who was found guilty of killing his wife Uthra using a cobra.
Sooraj has been sentenced to life imprisonment with Rs 5 lakh for offence under section 302 of the IPC, jail term for life with Rs 1 lakh for offence under section 307, 10 years in jail for offence under section 328 and 7-years imprisonment under section 201. The life imprisonment under section 328 and 201 will begin only after 17 years, the court said.
The Kollam Additional District and Sessions Court, presided by Justice Manoj M, pronounced its judgment in first of its kind murder where the husband threw a starving cobra on his wife while she was asleep to induce her death by snakebite. This is reportedly the first case in the State where a live animal was used for murder.
He was found guilty of murder and the prosecution Advocate G Mohanraj had asked for the death sentence arguing that it fulfilled the criteria of being the rarest of rare cases. He further asserted that such a sentence was in the public interest considering the gravity of the offence and that he had never sought a death sentence before for any case during his service, Livelaw reported.
Also read:Â Uthra murder: Kerala court convicts man who killed wife using a cobra
The prosecution had told the court that the 28-year-old had committed four out of the five acts listed by the Supreme Court of India as reasonable grounds for awarding the death sentence.
Since there was no eyewitness, the police had to resort to circumstantial and technical evidence. the Police had successfully cracked the case using a dummy reptile and recreating the entire crime scene. The Special Public Prosecutor had recorded his appreciation for the efforts of the Kerala Police in deciphering the murder.
The prosecution stated that Sooraj had purchased a cobra and deliberately made it bite Uthra after drugging her. Sooraj and Uthra were married in 2018 and the couple have a son. According to prosecution, Sooraj started searching for vipers online from January 2020. On March 3, 2020, at around 1am Uthra suffered her first snake bite. According to prosecution, Sooraj tried delaying taking her to the hospital. She was recovering from the same when her life was claimed by the second snakebite.
