KERALA WOMAN, LOVER GET JAIL FOR POISONING HUSBAND IN OZ

An Australian court on Wednesday sentenced a Malayalee woman and her lover to over 20 years in prison for murdering her husband at their Epping home in October 2015.

While Sofia Sam (33) was sentenced to 22 years in prison, her lover – Arun Kamalasannan – received a jail term of 27 years. In February, the Victorian Supreme Court had found both of them guilty of fatally poisoning the victim – Sam Abraham – with cyanide-laced orange juice.

Justice Coghlan said the guilty parties do not deserve any sympathy beca- use the murder was a premeditated one. The judge noted that 36-year-old Arun – who met Sofia at a university in India – had “snuck into the family garage, gained entry through a window and sedated the family” to commit the crime. Also, the convicted wife seemed “least remorseful”, he added.

Australian police said 34-yearold Sam – an employee with the UAE Exchange – was found dead in the bedroom of their house on October 13, 2015. Sofia called up his relatives to say that he had died of cardiac arrest. She brought his body to Kerala and returned to Melbourne after performing his last rites.

Once she was back in Australia, Sofia began living in with Arun. Sam’s friends grew suspicious and alerted the police, who decided to put the samples they initially collected through a rigorous check. When the toxicology report showed an inordinate amount of cyanide in the victim’s liver and blood, they examined Sofia’s phone call details to zero in on a conspiracy. The two were arrested in August 2016.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: