KOLLAM: A court in Kollam on Monday sentenced the husband and mother-in-law of a 28-year-old woman to life imprisonment for starving her to death over dowry in 2019.
Kollam Additional Sessions Court judge S Subhash also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on the convicts, Chandulal, 36, and Geetha Lali, 62, who were found guilty for murdering Thushara, a native of Karunagapally. Chandulal’s father Lal, 67, the third accused, was found dead on the banks of the Ithikkara river six months ago. The court observed that this is an unprecedented case in the country.
The prosecution argued that the murder was carried out according to a plan. At the time of her death, Thushara weighed only 21 kg. The postmortem report revealed that there were no traces of food in her stomach.
Thushara died on March 21, 2019, in Oyoor. After being informed about her death, Thushara’s father and family members rushed to the Kollam District Hospital around 1am and found her body in a deteriorated state. The postmortem, which was conducted based on a complaint lodged with the Pooyappally police, revealed the shocking details of the “murder”.
Chandulal married Thushara in 2013. According to the prosecution, after the engagement, the accused forced Thushara to sign an agreement stating she would pay the shortfall of Rs 2 lakh in dowry within three years. However, just three months into the marriage, the accused began subjecting Thushara to physical and mental torture, demanding the dowry.
Verdict satisfactory, says prosecution
Thushara was then isolated from her family, the prosecution said.
“Thushara has two daughters, but even they were not allowed to meet their mother. The accused even prevented Thushara from interacting with her children. The police found that the accused denied Thushara the right to mother her own children.
The statements of neighbours and the teacher of Thushara’s three-and-a-half-year-old child were crucial in the case. When the child’s teacher enquired about the absence of the mother, the accused falsely claimed she was bedridden. They also misled others by saying Geetha, the second accused, was the mother,” said special prosecutor K B Mahendra.
The court on Saturday found the accused guilty under sections 302 (murder), 304b (dowry death), 344 (wrongful confinement), and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC, convicting them of murder with common intent, causing death by negligence and wrongful detention.
Mahendra said this was the first such case in the country.
“During the legal fight, I couldn’t find any similar incident. We typically rely on precedents and court judgments, but this case was unique. In 1961, there was an attempted starvation death over dowry, but the woman survived,” he said. “We are satisfied with the verdict though we had hoped for the maximum punishment. This was a challenging case as all the events took place inside the house, and we had to rely on circumstantial evidence,” he added.
Chandulal argued for a lesser sentence citing his elderly mother, while the prosecution pushed for the maximum punishment.