Man gets double life sentence for killing wife using cobra

In the first such conviction in India, a 26-year old man named Sooraj has been sentenced to two life terms plus 17 years in jail for murdering his wife using snakes as weapon.

The double life term is on account of the murder as well as a failed murder attempt earlier, both using venomous snakes. The convict will first serve 17 years in jail on two counts of using poison to harm a fellow being and attempts to destroy evidence, before commencing the life term.

In a verdict that was keenly watched by the whole of Kerala, the additional sessions judge in the district court of Kollam described the case as belonging to the ‘rarest of the rare’ category, but refrained from awarding the death sentence considering the young age of the convict as well as to give him an opportunity to reform himself.

The family of the girl, however, expressed disappointment over sparing the hangman’s rope and promised to appeal, saying the verdict was not strong enough to deter others from enacting such crime.

Sooraj had earlier used a viper to kill his wife Uthra, but she survived the snake bite and spent nearly two months in hospital. While she was writhing in pain – viper bites are very painful — in her ICU bed, the man was sitting outside watching Youtube videos on how to plan his next attempt using a cobra.

Within days of the woman returning to her parents’ home for recuperation, the man brought home a cobra and starved it so that it would become more ferocious when released. After putting his wife to drug-induced sleep, he released the cobra on her. The man had trained himself in handling snakes to execute his plan.

On seeing that the snake refused to bite, he provoked it by squeezing it in his hands and then throwing it again on her body. And this time, the snake obliged.