India | Kerala snakebite murder: Husband challenges his conviction in HC

KOCHI: The Kerala high court on Tuesday sought the state government’s views on an appeal filed by the husband of Uthra challenging his conviction in the infamous snakebite murder case.

A division bench led by Justice K Vinod Chandran issued notice to the government after considering an appeal filed by Suraj S Kumar challenging his conviction for the offences of murder, causing hurt by poison, and causing disappearance of evidence.

In the case in which Suraj was accused of murdering his 25-year-old wife by throwing a starving cobra on her while she was sleeping, a sessions court had convicted him on October 13.

Suraj was sentenced to undergo double life imprisonment for murder, 10 years of jail term for causing hurt using poison, and 7 years of internment for destroying evidence.

Though the prosecution had sought death penalty for Suraj, the trial court had declined, citing the young age of the accused and his lack of criminal antecedents.

As per the prosecution case, Uthra had survived an attempt on her life using a viper but had died due to a second snake bite in May 2020.

A snake handler had allegedly sold two snakes to Suraj for Rs 10,000.

Source: timesofindia.com, Mahir Haneef / TNN, January 4, 2022

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