Man held for wife’s snakebite murder; dowry cited as reason

TRIVANDRUM: Police in Kerala have arrested a man for allegedly killing his wife by getting a snake to bite her in their bedroom earlier this month.

The young mother was already undergoing treatment for snakebite while he planned the murder at her parents’ home in Anchal in the southern district of Kollam.

Relatives of Uthara, 25, said she was sleeping with her husband Sooraj and one-year-old son Dhruv when she suffered the snakebite.

She was dead when he brought her body to the hospital the next morning. The relatives grew suspicious as she had similarly suffered a snakebite at his home a month earlier.

They found a cobra under the cot on which she had slept in an air-conditioned room with all its windows closed.

Later, a snake charmer admitted to the police that he had sold the snake to Sooraj for Rs 10,000.

Speaking to the media, Hari Sankar, Kollam (rural) SP, said it was a well-hatched conspiracy by the deceased’s husband Suraj and his friend Suresh, a snake catcher. The case was handed over to the Crime Branch on a complaint from the deceased’s parents, he added.

Detailing the case, he said, “The first attempt to kill Uthara failed as she recovered after the snake bite. Two days after she was discharged from the hospital, Suraj bought another snake on April 24. He kept it in a container.

“On the night of May 6, he placed the snake on the bed she was sleeping. The snake bit her twice. He tried to retrieve the snake, but failed. Next morning he went out and her mother found her lying unconscious. They took her to the hospital, but was declared brought dead. Later, when they returned to the house, the snake was located and killed.”

The motive behind the crime, Sankar said was Suraj wanted another wife.

“They killed my daughter for money. I had given her 90 sovereigns of gold ( worth around Rs 3.1 million),” her father Vijayasenan said.

“I had also given him a car and a lot of money, but he’s never satisfied with what he got and continued to demand more. His relatives were also greedy.”