Kollam : “You, your baggage and all must be gone when I reach home” - these were husband Kishore’s words to Lakshmi 2 days before she was discovered dead in his house and the last words she would ever hear from him.
Upon arrival from Kuwait, Kishore and his family waited a good three hours on finding bedroom with Lakshmi locked from inside. Instead of breaking in and attempting to save life like anyone would, Kishore summoned Lakshmi’s mother from Adoor - a clever strategy of ensuring Lakshmi dies with out help, said police.
Lakshmi lived in a house full of women relatives comprising Kishore’s mother, his sister, maternal aunt and paternal aunt. Typical to combination of too many idle females under one roof, Lakshmi became constant target of acute nagging and isolation tactics.
Kishore took it up on himself to stand by all the feeds the female gang provided and added his own dose of mental torture, the young bride found hard to cope with. On 5th Onam day, Kishore’s sister arrived with children and were to be treated with traditional feast.
Lakshmi was laid up with fever and rose late for kitchen. On the day, Kishore called to say “For every tear my sister might shed, you will shed ten”.
After asking Lakshmi to leave 2 days before arrival, he blocked her from his social media accounts.
Hoping to reconcile matters once Kishore arrived, Lakshmi’s mother wanted to be at his house on the day. But Lakshmi told her, “they will all surround and attack you. Maybe some other time. Not on the day of arrival.”
When mother Rama came down three hours after Kishore’s arrival, she opened the locked bedroom and asked for her daughter to be taken to hospital, to which Kishore nonchalantly said “She is dead anyway. So why take to hospital?”.
