KOCHI: The Ernakulam Additional Sessions Court on Thursday sentenced a 61-year-old man to life imprisonment for his brother’s murder over a property dispute at Chullikkal near Fort Kochi in 2016.
Babu, aka Vincent wanted the ancestral property to be partitioned. But his younger brother Milton, 38, aka Augustine, was against it. Babu, an accused in a couple of other criminal cases, is also facing trial for the murder of his other brother, Nelson, 43, in 2017.
According to the prosecution, Babu nursed an enmity towards Milton as the latter neither permitted him to live in the family house nor agreed to partition it. On September 13, 2016, the brothers argued over the matter, following which Babu stabbed Milton with a knife. Milton sustained severe injuries, resulting in the internal organs to come out, the prosecution pointed out. Milton’s body remained in the bedroom of the house for nine days.
Pronouncing the order, Judge C Pradeep Kumar praised Dr Krishna, assistant professor, Medical College Hospital, Alappuzha, who performed the autopsy on the body which was in a decomposed state. “It is always a challenging task... In this case, Dr Krishna conducted the autopsy on September 22, on the 10th day of the death,” he pointed out.
As the body was infested with maggots, the nature of injuries could not be ascertained. But Dr Krishna managed to ascertain the exact nature of all injuries and gave a clear opinion about the cause of death, he said. Babu murdered Nelson while he was out on bail.