A district and sessions court here convicted a 53-year-old resident of Kumpala to life imprisonment after sentencing him for the offence of murdering his wife by assaulting and poisoning her.
III Additional District and Sessions Judge S. Sandhya passed the sentence order on Wednesday, March 12, against Joseph Francis Renson, resident of Edathil House, Chetana Nagara, Kumpala near here.
The convict assaulted his wife Shyma with a rolling pin and later poured pesticide in to her mouth when she became unconscious on May 11, 2022 at his house. Pouring pesticide into her mouth was to portray the incident as an attempt to suicide, Public prosecutor B. Mohan Kumar told the court.
The convict took the step after the wife continued to advise him to shun bad habits he was addicted to. While the assault took place at around 2.30 p.m., children of the couple took an injured Shyma immediately to a hospital at Deralakatte and she died at around 10 p.m.
Though the two sons of the couple, who were eye witnesses to the incident turned hostile, the court relied upon the medical evidence to conclude that Renson had murdered Shyma, Mr. Kumar said. On the same day of the incident, police registered a case of murder against the convict on the basis of a preliminary post-mortem report by Varsha A. Shetty, Assistant Professor in Forensic Science Department with Justice K.S. Hegde Academy of Medical Sciences. Dr. Shetty had said the death was due to severe head injury.
The court based its verdict on the detailed post-mortem report and circumstantial evidence, the prosecutor said. The court also directed the district legal services authority to pay appropriate compensation to the father and children of the deceased.
Published – March 12, 2025 07:43 pm IST