Vismaya dowry case: Kerala HC rejects plea to suspend sentence

An employee of the state motor vehicles department, Kumar was sentenced to 10-year rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹12.50 lakh by the additional district court in Kollam (south Kerala) in May this year. Later he was terminated from the service by the government

Thiruvananthapuram:

Rejecting the convict’s plea, a Kerala high court division bench of Justices Alexandar Thomas and Sophy Thomas observed that sentence cannot be suspended at his juncture. (HT Archives)

The Kerala high court on Tuesday rejected a petition filed by Kiran Kumar who was convicted in the dowry death case of his wife Vismaya Nair seeking an order to suspend his sentence and release him on bail.

An employee of the state motor vehicles department, Kumar was sentenced to 10-year rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹12.50 lakh by the additional district court in Kollam (south Kerala) in May this year. Later he was terminated from the service by the government. Kumar has sought suspension of the verdict saying he was a victim of media trial and sentence was based on mere assumptions and conjectures.

Rejecting his plea, a division bench of Justices Alexandar Thomas and Sophy Thomas observed that sentence cannot be suspended at his juncture. “Criminal miscellaneous application is dismissed. It is made clear that observations and findings in the order are for limited purpose of this application and it will not any way affect contention to be taken up by applicant in appeals,” the court observed.

The tragic death of young woman, a BAMS student, had triggered outrage in the state and Governor Arif Mohammad Khan had visited her house to console her parents and later the government initiated several campaigns against the social evil, dowry. Kumar, an assistant motor vehicles inspector, was later dismissed from the service by the government. Kumar had married Vismaya on May 30, 2020 and she was found hanging in her husband’s house on June 21, 2021. The case was fast-tracked and Kumar was found guilty by the trial court on May 23, 2022.

Parents complained that their daughter was harassed over the car they gifted to her at the time of wedding. Their son-in-law (Kumar) often used to complain that he was entitled to a luxury car and the one gifted was only worth ₹10 lakh. The family also said they gifted over 100 sovereigns of gold, one-acre land, among other things, but her husband wanted more and harassed and tortured her. Though initially parents raised murder charges against the husband, in post-mortem it was found to be a suicide. He was the lone accused in the case.