Kollam : The Kollam Additional Sessions Court pronounced 17 years of rigorous impisonment plus two life sentences for Suraj - the Pathanamthitta native who murdered his wife Uttara by orchestrating snake bite.
25-year-old Uttara was found dead in her bedroom at parent’s home on 7th of May, 2020 while recuperating from Viper bite she sustained at her husband’s home earlier. Parents complained to police on their suspicions surrounding the death given the unusual repeat of three snake bite occurrences and the strange fact that Uttara did not wake up or raise an alarm despite excruciating pain a cobra-bite is known to cause.
Suraj had gotten successful at murdering Uttara in his third attempt using venomous snake. On the fateful night, he laced Uttara’s orange juice with sedation before manipulating the cobra to inflict the fatal bites.
Uttara is an intellectually-handicapped woman. The couple have a one-and-half year old daughter, who is now at Uttara’s home under her parent’s care. The motive, according to police was to rid of his wife in hopes of re-marrying.
In a case that was largely circumstantial without witness accounts, murder was proved by evidences collected from the scene, tracing the snake-catcher who supplied culprit with the cobra and forensic evidences that including matching the snake’s DNA with that sampled from bites on Uttara’s hand.
Meanwhile, Uttara's parents have expressed discontent on the verdict and said they will appeal to upper judiciary seeking death penalty for Suraj. The trial court spared death row taking Suraj's young age and lack of any previous crime history.
Suraj has been convicted under IPC section 302(murder), 307(attempt to murder), 328 ( hurt by poisoning) and destroying evidence(201).
