Thiruvananthapuram | A court in Kerala on Monday sentenced a woman to death for the sensational murder of her boyfriend in 2022, stating that the manner of the killing was "extremely brutal, gruesome, diabolical and revolting", shocking the collective conscience of the community.
The Neyyattinkara Additional District Sessions Court also imposed a fine of Rs 3.5 lakh on the convict Greeshma, 24.
The victim, Sharon Raj, was a native of Parassala in the Thiruvananthapuram district.
The court also sentenced her uncle, Nirmalakumaran Nair, the third accused in the case, under section 201 of IPC for destruction of evidence to three years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000.
The woman had sought leniency in sentencing by citing her academic achievements, lack of prior criminal history, and the fact that she is her parents' only daughter.
However, in its 586-page verdict, the court observed the statement of the accused as to the social background and family circumstances, age, absence of criminal antecedents, and her good conduct cannot be taken as mitigating circumstances to take the case out of the category of "rarest of rare cases".
The court also sentenced Greeshma to undergo imprisonment for a period of 10 years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh for offence under section 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) of IPC, rigorous imprisonment for a period of 5 years and a fine of Rs 50,000 for the offence under section 328 (administering stupefying drug with intent to cause hurt, etc) of IPC, and imprisonment for a period of two years for the offence under section 203 (giving false information respecting an offence committed) of IPC.
The substantive sentence of imprisonment ordered shall run concurrently, the order said.
All the fine amount, if realised, will be given to the father and mother of Sharon Raj, it added.
This court will be failing in the duty if the maximum punishment prescribed under the law is not imposed on the accused, the order said.
"In the circumstances, a death sentence alone would be proper and legal. Taking into consideration of all the facts and materials, it is crystal clear that the entire act of convict amounts to barbaric and inhuman behaviour of the highest order," the court said.
Noting that the manner in which the murder was carried out in the present case is extremely brutal, gruesome, diabolical, and revolting as to shock the collective conscience of the community, the court said it was a murder without provocation.
"No proof is brought to show that he caused any wrong to her, apart from the arguments by the accused," it added.
On the other hand, she feigned love, and after offering sex, she enticed him with deceitful means and gave him a concoction laced with poison under the pretext of the kashayam challenge, it said.
Sharon never opposed, and the subsequent messages sent by him to her will openly declare his heart was filled with love towards her till he breathed his last, it said.
The court hailed the public prosecutor, his junior lawyers, scientific experts, and the investigation team.
"This case is a golden feather on the cap of Kerala Police which successfully brought material digital and forensic evidence otherwise it would have been a case of suicide or unnatural death," it observed.
Expressing satisfaction with the judgement, the mother of the victim, Priya, told reporters that she was grateful to the court for issuing such an exemplary order.
Special Public Prosecutor V S Vineeth Kumar told reporters that the verdict was fully justified.
He added that despite Greeshma's belief that she couldn't be detected, the scientific investigation conducted by the probe team ultimately led to her arrest.
The court also rejected Greeshma's claim that she had no criminal background stating that she had attempted to poison Sharon by mixing paracetamol tablets into fruit juice. However, that attempt failed when he refused to drink it, citing its bitter taste, on 22 August 2022, he said.
Welcoming the verdict, D Shilpa, the then-superintendent of police, who oversaw the probe, said it was a victory for the joint efforts of the police investigation team.
K Y Johnson, DySP, the then-investigation officer, also said there were several challenges during the inquiry.
"We collected scientific evidence, and the court considered all the evidence produced by the investigation team," he added.
"The accused searched on Google about slow poisoning and came to know about paraquat, a lethal herbicide. The presence of this poison on one's body could not be identified in an examination carried out after 24 hours, however, our probe revealed it," he said.
The court convicted Greeshma and her uncle—Nirmalakumaran Nair—while acquitting her mother due to lack of evidence.
According to the prosecution, Raj was lured by Greeshma to her house in Ramavarmanchirai, located in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, on October 14, 2022, and poisoned with an ayurvedic tonic laced with paraquat, a herbicide.
Raj, 23, succumbed to multiple organ failure at a hospital 11 days later, on October 25, 2022, after consuming the lethal concoction.
The prosecution told the court that Greeshma, then 22, plotted the murder after Sharon refused to end their relationship, even though her marriage had been arranged with an army man from Nagercoil.
