A court in Kerala's Kollam, on Monday, April 28, sentenced Chandulal (36) and his mother Geetha Lali (60) to life imprisonment in the 2019 dowry death case of Thushara, who was starved to death by them. The case began when Tushara, who was then 28, was brought dead to a hospital near here in March 2019. As her family raised suspicion about her death seeing the frailty of her body, her body was taken to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College for an autopsy.
Later, it surfaced that Tushara was constantly tortured and was starved for an unknown period of time by her husband and in-laws. She was harassed as they were demanding more dowry, and this torture continued for a long time, and she was not allowed to even spend time with her two daughters. Tushara’s parents were also kept at bay by Chandulal and his mother.
Judge S Subhash of the Kollam additional district court judge passed the verdict and also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh. According to a Times of India report, the mother and son were awarded life-term rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh each for crimes under sections 302 (murder) and 304 (B) (dowry death) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Further, another two-year rigorous imprisonment and a Rs 5,000 fine were also imposed for crime under IPC section 344 for wrongful confinement. The sentences would run concurrently.
Thushara's mother welcomed the verdict, saying that her daughter suffered a lot. "The dowry harassment started three months after the wedding took place. My daughter suffered a lot there, and despite that, she continued to remain there. Every time she called us, she used to tell us to bring the money, and she did not want us to visit her," she said.
The prosecution said that this was a one-of-a-kind case in our country. "When the post-mortem report came, it pointed out that there were no food particles in her stomach and her urinary bladder was also totally empty," said the prosecution counsel and added that he is yet to come across any case where a person was starved to death.
"When her girl was admitted to the school, the name of the mother was written as Geethalal. The teacher of her child came to know of the mother's name only after news reports of her death," the counsel added.
(With IANS inputs)