The Kollam District and Sessions Court on Thursday found solar scam accused Biju Radhakrishnan guilty of murdering his wife Reshmi. His mother Rajammal was also found guilty in the case.
Delivering the verdict, District and Sessions Judge Ashok Menon said the sentence would be pronounced on Friday.
Biju was found guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 323 (causing hurt), and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) read with 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
Rajammal was found guilty under Section 498A read with 34 of the IPC.
Reshmi was declared dead on arrival at the Kottarakara Taluk Hospital on February 5, 2006.
ProbeBiju and Rajammal were arrested in June last year on charges of murdering Reshmi on the basis of a Crime Branch CID investigation headed by DySP C.G. Suresh Kumar.
Special Public Prosecutor G. Mohanraj said the prosecution case was that Biju had forced Reshmi to consume liquor laced with poison and asphyxiated her at his house at Kulakkad in Kottarakara. The murder had taken place on the night of February 4, 2006.
It was initially registered as a case of unnatural death by the Kottarakara police.
In 2010, the clause of 498A was incorporated suggesting that Reshmi had committed suicide.
InvestigatorsTwelve officers investigated the case and one of the officers, DySP V. Gopalakrishnan, had concluded it as a case of murder.
On taking charge of the Kollam Crime Branch (Hurt and Homicide wing) in January last year, Mr. Suresh Kumar revived investigation in the case.
On June 17, while he was on the run in connection with the solar scam, Biju was arrested from Coimbatore in connection with the murder case.
He married Reshmi in 2001.
She was a B.Ed. student at a college in Kulakada and stayed briefly at Biju’s house where Rajammal, who was living alone, accommodated students as paying guests.
Biju befriended Reshmi and they got married. However, Reshmi’s parents were opposed to the relationship and took her home. Biju later managed to contact her and they eloped.
The couple had two sons. The prime witness in the case was the elder son, who is still a minor.
WitnessesSolar scam prime accused Saritha S. Nair and actor Shalu Menon were also witnesses in the case and they had testified before the court.
Mr. Mohanraj said the trial in the case had commenced on November 18.
The Kerala High Court had issued a directive that the trial should be completed within five months of commencement of the trial.
