KASARAGOD: A 65-year-old man has been sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment for hacking to death his parents with an axe twenty-eight and a half years ago. The trial was delayed because the accused was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for 25 years.
Kasaragod Additional Sessions Court (I) judge Unnikrishnan A V found Sadasiva, then a daily wage labourer, guilty of murdering his parents Mankumulya (63) and Lakshmi (53) of Thalakalai village in Kumbla on March 22, 1993.
In the afternoon of that day, Sadasiva had a heated argument with his mother when she asked him to lower the volume of the radio, said public prosecutor P Raghavan. Around 11 pm, there was an argument between him and his parents, and he used an axe to hack them to death, said the prosecutor.
The crime was witnessed by Sadasiva's wife and children aged around four and five years. When they screamed, Sadasiva's brother and his wife, who lived next door, came running in and saw him with the axe.
"All of them, including his wife, testified against Sadasiva," said Raghavan.
Accused loses mental health
However, soon after he was arrested, Sadasiva was diagnosed with having a mental ailment, said the prosecutor. Under the court's direction, he was admitted to the Government Mental Health Centre at Kuthiravattam near Kozhikode. "He was under treatment till 2018. That is why the trial got delayed," he said.
The court proceedings restarted in 2018 only after he was found to be mentally fit for trial, he said. The actual trial started in October 2019.
When asked if Sadasiva was mentally stable when he committed the crime, the prosecution said none of his relatives said he was mentally unwell. "He must have been fine else the court would not have sentenced him," he said.
The court had also slapped a fine of Rs 30,000 on Sadasiva. If the fine is not paid, he would have to serve another two years in prison.