The duo killed the woman’s daughter and mother-in-law
A 30-year-old techie was sentenced to death and his colleague and paramour a 30-year-old woman to life term for killing the three-year-old daughter and mother-in-law of the woman in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on Monday.
Principal Sessions Judge V Shersy termed Anu Shanti, the woman convict, an “insult to motherhood”. The court had earlier found that Anu Shanti and Nino Mathew, the prime accused were guilty of murdering her daughter and mother-in-law.
The judge also fined both of them with $73524 and directed to pay $73524 to Anu Shanti’s husband Lijesh, and $44117 to Thankappan Chettiyar, Lijesh’s father.
The judge observed that the crime was “the rarest of the rare case” and termed the crime as a “brutal” and “heinous” one.
Though the court observed that Shanti had also actively participated in the murder, she was not given death penalty considering her health, that she is a woman.
The incident happened on the afternoon of April 16, 2014, when 57-year-old Vijayamma, also known as Omana, was alone at her home in Attingal, Thiruvananthapuram with her son Lijeesh’s 4-year-old daughter Swastika.
Nino Mathew visited the house and introduced himself as a friend of Lijeesh and said that he had come to invite him for a marriage. He asked Vijayamma to call Lijeesh who had gone out for some work and ask him to come home.
After Vijayamma Lijeesh, Mathew stabbed both Vijayamma and Swastika to death and waited for half-an-hour for Lijeesh. When Lijeesh came home, Mathew attacked him also, but he managed to escape and alerted the neighbors leading to Mathew’s arrest.
According to the police Shanti and Mathew were working with an IT company in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram and they developed a relationship. They decided to kill Lijeesh and Swastika so that they can live together.
The convicts had made a detailed plan for the murder. The police have recovered the Whats App messages that contained the pictures of their home sent by Shanti to Mathew. They had also planned the route to escape after committing the murder.
Mathey had stolen some jewelry from the house to make the murder look like a robbery attempt. But all the plans failed when Lijeesh escaped and alerted the neighbors.
Being one of the prime witnesses, Lijeesh’s statement was very important in the case. He had earlier told media that the convicts should get maximum punishment.
The court has examined 49 witnesses, and 85 documents and 41 material evidence were used.