The husband of Kerala woman Uthra, who killed her using a cobra, has been found guilty of murder by the Kollam additional sessions court and the quantum of sentence will be announced on October 13.
The prosecution had argued that Sooraj, Uthra’s husband, killed her on May 7, 2020, using a cobra after drugging her. The incident happened at her house in Kollam. According to the prosecution, this was the second time Uthra was bitten by a snake as earlier she was attacked by a viper at Sooraj’s house.
Advocate G Mohan Raj, special public prosecutor, said Uthra was differently abled and during marriage, dowry of about 98 sovereigns of gold, Rs 4 lakh and a car was given. Uthra’s father also used to give about Rs 8,000 every month. The prosecution case was that Sooraj wanted all these benefits and hence resorted to the crime.
Sooraj was found guilty under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 328 and 201.
Since there was no eye witness, the police had to resort to circumstantial and technical evidence. They even conducted a test with a dummy and snake to show the difference between the bite marks when bitten naturally and induced. The police have also collected evidence from Sooraj’s mobile which revealed that he searched for cobra and viper.
The prosecution case is 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. “The bite happened around 1am, he called his friend to bring a vehicle to take her to the hospital only around 2.25am though there were two vehicles in his house. She was in the hospital for about 52 days. Sooraj stayed with her in the hospital but at the same time, he was searching for cobras in his mobile phone. Prior to her being bitten by viper in March, he was searching for viper,” the prosecution case said.
Prosecution states that Sooraj had purchased a viper and a cobra from a person named Suresh by spending Rs 10,000 and Rs 7,000 respectively before Uthra was bitten by a snake.
Prosecution said that on March 10, 2020, Sooraj watched a video four times about cobra venom extraction. On May 7, Sooraj and Uthra were at her residence. A day earlier, Sooraj came to her house with a shoulder bag in which he reportedly carried the cobra. The prosecution also said that when Uthra was taken to the hospital even before the doctor checked her, Sooraj told the doctor about the bite mark.
Meanwhile, the counsel for Sooraj had argued that this was a case of natural snake bite and not induced. Adv Ajith Prabhav, counsel for the defence, said: “The test conducted by the police on natural and induced bites is preposterous. According to police, incident has happened in two places but there are no two FIRs or investigation. This was a natural bite and not an induced one.”
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