Dowry death: Kerala court reserves verdict, will pronounce it on May 23

A Kerala court on Tuesday reserved judgment in the Vismaya case in which an Ayurveda medical student was found dead in her husband's house under mysterious circumstances after she had complained of dowry harassment.

Additional District and Sessions Judge-1 Sujith K N said the verdict would be pronounced on May 23.

The court's decision was confirmed by advocate G Mohanraj, who is the special public prosecutor (SPP) in the case.

He said that the court reserved its verdict after the conclusion of arguments by the prosecution and defense.

The SPP also said that during the trial 42 witnesses, 102 documents, and several call records were examined in the court.

He further said that the prosecution contended that based on evidence submitted before the court, the offenses charged against the accused husband were made out.

Kerala Police in its 500-page charge sheet had said that Vismaya committed suicide due to dowry harassment.

It had charged the victim's husband, S Kiran Kumar, under Sections 304B, 498A, 306, 323, and 506, for the offenses of dowry death, dowry harassment, abetment to suicide, voluntarily causing hurt, and criminal intimidation, respectively, under the IPC.

Vismaya, 22, was found dead in the house of her husband at Sasthamkotta in the Kollam district on June 21, 2021.

Kumar, who was an assistant motor vehicle inspector, was arrested and the state government later dismissed him from service.

A day before the incident, Vismaya had sent WhatsApp messages to her relatives over the alleged harassment by Kumar over dowry, as well as photos of wounds and marks of beatings on her body.

Her father had told a TV channel that 100 sovereigns of gold (one sovereign is equal to 8 grams of gold) and over one-acre land, besides a car worth Rs 10 lakh were given as dowry to Kumar during the wedding in 2020.

But Kumar did not like the car and wanted Rs 10 lakh in cash. As he was told it was not possible, he used to torture her, the father had said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)