Now Reading: Man gets life for killing pregnant worker to hide affair
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Man gets life for killing pregnant worker to hide affair
A court in Idukki, Kerala, has sentenced Mathew Devasya, 63, to life imprisonment for the 2012 murder of Ambili, a plantation worker who was eight months pregnant with his child. Thodupuzha Principal District cum Sessions Judge Sanu S Panicker also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the accused.
Prosecutors said Devasya, a married supervisor at a cardamom plantation, had an affair with Ambili. To conceal the relationship after she became pregnant, he strangled her with a plastic rope, wrapped her body in a tarpaulin weighted with stones, and dumped it in a pond. The bodies of Ambili and the child were found days later by workers.
Devasya had attempted suicide during the police search. With no eyewitnesses, the conviction was based on circumstantial and scientific evidence, including DNA tests confirming Devasya was the father.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The case is a rare instance where a court in Kerala has handed a life term for a crime of passion against a woman from the plantation labour community, a group often marginalised. The conviction relied entirely on circumstantial evidence, which in Indian courts requires a chain so complete that no other hypothesis is possible. The fine of Rs 1 lakh is modest relative to the victim's family's loss, and no compensation order was reported. The sentence closes a 12-year-old case that highlights the vulnerability of women workers in isolated plantation estates, where supervisors hold significant power over employees.
Source: hindustantimes.com
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