Nino Mathew’s father, T.C. Mathew, 70, was in court when the judge V. Shircy imposed death sentence on his son.
Mr. Mathew stood near the dock in the crowded court room, trying to look inconspicuous. Grief was writ all over his face, but the retired chemistry professor seemed stoic and dignified.
He was prosecution witness 43 in the case.
Mr. Mathew had testified earlier that he had often tried to turn his son away from the path to perdition.
He wanted Nino to forsake his extra marital relationship and reunite with his family. The father and son rarely spoke to each other and communicated through letters they routinely placed on each other’s respective desks. Many of them were submitted in court as evidence.
The father wanted his son to confess and seek priestly guidance. The gossips surrounding his son disturbed him much. He said Nino had used his mobile phone for the crime.
Nino stood in the dock with his head bowed when the judge delivered her sentence. Anu Shanthi stood alongside him, apparently unmoved.
Ms. Shircy was unsparing. “This is a classic case where adharma has overtaken dharma ,” she said. The judge also mourned the IT professionals whose “loss of wisdom” she felt had extinguished two lives and destroyed their own futures.
Summing up her sentence, Ms. Shircy pointedly quoted T. S. Eliot. “Where is the Life We have lost in the Living?
Where the Wisdom We have lost in Knowledge?
Where is Knowledge we have lost in Information?
The Cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from God and nearer to Dust.”
Ms. Shircy’s recitation of Eliot seemed to best encapsulate the frailty of human nature that the judge felt lay at the heart of the tragic crime.
This is a classic case where adharma has overtaken dharma : Judge V. Shircy.
