“It is a great day, a very good day for me, my sister, for my family,” said a young Latvian woman after a Kerala judge convicted the accused in the rape and murder of her sister, four and a half years after the crime. The Additional Sessions Court in Thiruvananthapuram found Umesh and Udayan guilty of the sexual assault and murder of the woman who had come for medical treatment to Kovalam in February 2018. Her sister, Ilze, who had accompanied the woman, has since been fighting for justice. She hoped that the verdict will encourage other people to stand up for what is right, and that women and men alike will be able to go out safely on the streets of Kerala.
Thanking everyone from the special public prosecutor Mohanraj to the people who had stood by the family through the various stages of the case, the sister said, "There are not enough words to express my gratitude to all the people who helped me achieve this. Special thanks to Mohanraj and Daniel and the whole prosecution team who have been my guardian angels all the way and a few anonymous others who are close friends but are too humble to want their names mentioned.”
“I say thank you also to Abraham (Manoj Abraham who was the Thiruvananthapuram Range Inspector General at the time) who was always making sure that things were getting done. So grateful to all the journalists as well who supported me, posted my news, and helped me come this far. There are so many great people. So many at home also whose faces I have not seen, but it has been in their hearts that justice has to be done to my sister and now it is done," said the visibly excited sister.
She had approached the Kerala High Court last year to speed up the trial of the case. She had returned home three and a half years after the crime, disheartened from waiting so long for the trial to end. But Friday's verdict has made her very happy, she said, and she wished she had been in Thiruvananthapuram.
She expressed hope that this will encourage other people also to stand up for what is right. "It matters what kind of society we live in, that women and men alike can go out on the streets safely, and people can go to Kerala and enjoy its beauty, feeling safe and protected, and knowing that they will be taken care of. I wish that for you all," she said, smiling heartily.