MADURAI: The District Mahila Court on Friday awarded a life sentence to a Mexican man, one Martin Mantric (48), for murdering his former live-in partner in a dispute over the custody of their daughter in Madurai in 2012.
The deceased was 36-year-old Cecile Denise Acosta from Mexico. She reportedly met Mantric in Mexico in 2003 and was in a live-in relationship with him. The couple had a daughter named Adele. After they broke up, they fought a long legal battle before a Mexican family court for custody of the child. Finally, in May 2011, they entered into an agreement based on which each parent would have custody for the child for 14 months at a time.
Shortly after that, Mantric brought Adele to Virudhunagar and joined a deemed university there to do post-doctoral research in Mathematics. Acosta also came to India in 2011 and joined a university in Kerala to learn Mohiniyattam. She visited her daughter in Virudhunagar every few weeks.
On April 9, 2012, when Acosta came to Mantric’s house to meet Adele, the couple became embroiled in a heated argument over their daughter’s custody. In the course of the argument, an enraged Mantric struck Acosta, causing her death. To cover up the murder, he severed Acosta’s limbs and stuffed her body into a suitcase. He set the suitcase on fire and dumped the remains near Nilaiyur tank at Austinpatti in Madurai. He then filed a missing person’s complaint with Virudhunagar police.
However, a few days later, Austinpatti police discovered the half-burnt body of Acosta, and from an automobile spare parts and vehicle imprints found on the spot, zeroed in on Mantric who later confessed to the crime. After Mantric’s arrest, Adele was taken to Mexico by her maternal grandmother.
On Friday, Additional District and Sessions Judge G Ilangovan pronounced Mantric guilty of murdering Acosta and sentenced him to life in prison with a fine of Rs 5,000. Sources said that Mantric would be shifted to the Madurai Central Prison.