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Kerala woman found dead, kin accuse in-laws of murder
A 26-year-old woman found dead in a well in Kerala was murdered, her family claims, after the postmortem report listed several injuries on her body.
A 26-year-old woman, who was found dead in a well at her husband’s home on December 11 in Kannur district of Kerala, was murdered, her family members claimed on Tuesday.
The allegation was made after the postmortem report listed several injuries on the deceased’s body.
Shafna Sherin, wife of Riyas who is employed in the Gulf and mother to a four-year-old, was found dead at her in-laws’ home in Thottipalam. Subsequently, the local police filed a first information report (FIR) under section 174 (unnatural death) of the CrPC and ordered an autopsy.
“The post-mortem report states that the cause of death was drowning. But it also points to several small injuries on her body including those resembling nail scratches. We are examining the finer details mentioned in the report and will take further action,” said an investigating officer of the Chockli police station who asked not to be named.
“We have questioned the woman’s husband and his family members. Both his parents are elderly and we are probing if they have involvement in the crime. The husband arrived from the Gulf just a week before her death,” said the officer.
The injuries listed in the autopsy report include multiple small abrasions on the middle part of forehead, superficial lacerated wound on forehead, contusion with multiple small abrasion on left forearm and abrasion on the back of left palm.
Her mother told the local media, “It’s obvious that they (her in-laws’) killed her. Otherwise, she would not have sustained such injuries because she gets upset over the tiniest of injuries. There were problems in the marriage but she never told me fully. She would often say that she could not go back there and I would tell her not to go. They tortured her a lot.”
Her brother added, “Once she had called me saying that her father-in-law grabbed her by the neck to try to strangle her and that she didn’t want to live there anymore. There were problems with her in-laws over dowry at the time of marriage itself.”
