Kerala court finds woman guilty of poisoning boyfriend with herbicide in 2022 case

A court in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala on Friday found the key accused, Greeshma SS, guilty in the sensational 2022 Sharon Raj murder case

A court in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala on Friday found the key accused, Greeshma SS, guilty in the sensational 2022 Sharon Raj murder case.

The victim, Sharon, 23, was a BSc radiology student. (Representational image)

The ruling was delivered by the Neyyattinkara additional sessions court judge AM Basheer. The hearing on sentencing and the quantum of punishment will be announced on Saturday.

The trial court accepted the prosecution’s argument that Greeshma, a postgraduate literature student, poisoned her boyfriend Sharon, 23, a BSc radiology student, to death, so that she can marry the man her family had found.

The court also found Greeshma’s uncle Nirmalakumaran Nair guilty of destroying evidence in the case. At the same time, her mother, Sindhu, was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Read: Kerala high court rules magic mushroom not a narcotic substance: Report

“The first accused Greeshma has been found guilty under sections 364 (kidnapping), 328 (causing hurt by poison), 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) among other sections of the IPC. There were a lot of unpredictable circumstances in the case. The court will decide whether this is a rarest of the rare case and accordingly pronounce the punishment,” said public prosecutor VS Vineeth Kumar.

The prosecution argued in court that Greeshma wanted to end the relationship with Sharon while the latter was reluctant to do so. With the intention of killing him, the accused spiked his drinks several times, but Sharon escaped. Finally, on Oct ober14, 2022, Greeshma invited Sharon to her home in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and gave him an ayurvedic tonic that was laced with paraquat, a toxic herbicide used to kill weeds.

Eleven days later, on October 25, Sharon succumbed to multi-organ failure in Thiruvananthapuram. Her uncle and mother, the prosecution claimed, had played a role in throwing away the herbicide and destroying other evidence.

Sharon’s father Jayaraj and mother Priya expressed satisfaction with Greeshma’s conviction but were disappointed to hear of her mother’s acquittal.

Priya told reporters, “Her mother also played a role in the murder. She should have been convicted. We will definitely appeal against the acquittal in the high court.”