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2022 Kerala murder case: Death penalty to woman who poisoned boyfriend
The sessions court at Neyyattinkara in Thiruvananthapuram district also sentenced her uncle, Nirmalakumaran Nair, the third accused in the murder case, to a three-year term, finding him guilty of destruction of evidence.
A Kerala court on Monday sentenced to death 24-year-old Greeshma SS for poisoning her boyfriend in 2022, declining her prayer for leniency on account of her academic achievements, lack of prior criminal history, and the fact that she is an only daughter.
The sessions court at Neyyattinkara in Thiruvananthapuram district also sentenced her uncle, Nirmalakumaran Nair, the third accused in the murder case, to a three-year term, finding him guilty of destruction of evidence. The court acquitted Greeshma’s mother Sindhu last week.
In the 586-page verdict, additional district sessions judge AM Basheer observed that there was no need to consider the convict’s age and other circumstances given the gravity of the crime, terming it a “cold-blooded murder”. The order said that Greeshma poisoned to death, 23-year-old Sharon Raj, with whom she was in a relationship, after her parents fixed her marriage with another person and the victim refused to end their relationship.
“The act of inviting Sharon over under the pretext of sexual intimacy and subsequently committing the crime cannot be ignored... Evidence such as Sharon recording a video of the suspicious juice, despite Greeshma asking him not to record, indicates that he suspected something was wrong,” the judge noted in the order.
According to the prosecution, Greeshma invited Raj to her house at Ramavarmanchirai in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu on October 14, 2022 and poisoned him with an ayurvedic tonic laced with paraquat, a toxic herbicide used for killing weeds. Raj succumbed to multiple organ failure at a Thiruvananthpuram hospital 11 days later. The prosecution told the court that Greeshma, then 22, plotted the murder after Raj refused to end their relationship.
In his dying declaration to the magistrate, Raj admitted that he had consumed the herbal medicine given by Greeshma without suspecting any harm. The police filed the charge sheet on January 25, 2023 .
Special public prosecutor VS Vineeth Kumar said the “exemplary” verdict was fully justified and the court observed that this case is falling under the rarest of rare category.
“The court noted that the convict was a brilliant criminal who meticulously planned the brutal murder,” Kumar told reporters after the sentencing.
The court also rejected Greeshma’s claim that she had no criminal background stating that she had previously attempted to poison Sharon by mixing paracetamol tablets into fruit juice. However, that attempt, on August 22, 2022 failed when he refused to drink it, citing its bitter taste, the prosecutor said. He added that the court also observed that the woman’s actions sent a harmful message to society and violated the sanctity of love.
Expressing satisfaction with the verdict, the victim’s mother, Priya, said she was grateful to the court for issuing such an exemplary order. “Finally, my son can rest in peace,” she told reporters outside the court.
KY Johnson, deputy superintendent of police (dySP), who was the investigation officer in the case, said there were several challenges during the probe. “We collected scientific evidence and the court considered all the evidence produced by the investigation team… The accused searched on Google about slow poisoning and came to know about paraquat, a lethal herbicide,” the officer said.
Following her sentencing, Greeshma was taken to a women’s prison and correctional home at Attakkulangara in Thiruvananthapuram. She has the option of challenging the sentencing in a higher court.
