A court in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram convicted the accused in the rape and murder of a Latvian woman on Friday, December 2. The crime happened in March 2018 near Kovalam, and the Additional Sessions court in Thiruvananthapuram pronounced Umesh (27) and Udayan (31) guilty of all charges, including rape, murder, abduction and destruction of evidence. The quantum of sentence will be announced on Monday.

A 33-year-old Latvian woman who lived in Ireland came to Kovalam in Thiruvananthapuram in February 2018 for Ayurvedic treatment. She went missing a month later, on March 18, after which the family lodged a police complaint. The search continued for over a month, and her decomposed, beheaded body was recovered from a mangrove in Thiruvallom near Kovalam in April 2018. The police took six men into custody and arrested two of them – Umesh and Udayan. However, both the accused were let off on bail soon after.

In June this year, Dr Sasikala, former head of forensics at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, deposed before the court that the death of the woman was not by suicide. She stated that the injuries clearly indicated a case of homicide.

The prolonging of the case disheartened both the deceased’s sister and her partner who stayed back for years in Kerala to follow up on the proceedings. The sister initially flew back home with the ashes of the deceased, but returned to Kerala later on and approached the High Court last year to expedite the trial. Her partner also flew from Ireland for preliminary hearings and told TNM in an earlier interview that he was disappointed with the police investigation. He also brushed away rumours of the deceased having been lured by drug peddlers into the forest, firmly stating that she was strongly against the use of drugs.