THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The additional sessions court has sentenced a 29-year-old man, who was found guilty of murdering a 20-year-old girl to life imprisonment. Arun, of Peyad, was found guilty of murdering Soorya Gayathri of Karipur near Nedumangad in August 2021, for declining his marriage proposal.
Judge K Vishnu handed Arun rigorous life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 6 lakh. He was also given 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for attempting to murder Soorya’s mother Valsala, a one-year jail term for attacking Soorya’s father Sivadasan, and five years jail term for breaking into their house. All the sentences will run concurrently.
The case was that Arun had proposed to marry the girl in 2019, but her parents turned it down due to his criminal antecedents. Later, she was married off to a Kollam native. Arun harboured a grudge towards Soorya because of that and stabbed her to death when she visited her mother at their rented house. He stabbed the girl 33 times and attacked her parents, who are differently abled when they tried to save her.
The prosecution presented 39 witnesses, 64 documents and 49 pieces of material evidence to nail the case. The statements given by investigating officer Crime Branch DySP B S Sajimon and police surgeon Dhanya Raveendran proved crucial in leading to a conviction.
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