Former Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector Kiran Kumar who was dismissed from Kerala government service last year has been found guilty over dowry harassment charges that drove his 22-year-old wife Vismaya to kill herself.
The Additional Sessions Court at Kollam pronounced its verdict soon after convening on Monday morning. The quantum of punishment will be announced on Tuesday.
Vismaya was found hanging in the bathroom of Kumar's house at Sasthamkotta in Kollam district on June 21. Kumar had been in jail ever since his arrest on June 22. His bail plea was rejected in between. He was booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 498A (subjecting a woman to cruelty for dowry) and 304B (dowry death).
Vismaya was a fourth-year undergraduate student in Ayurveda Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) at Mannam Ayurveda College in Pandalam. She married Kiran Kumar on May 31, 2020.
Vismaya’s parents and brothers had alleged she was a victim of dowry harassment. They produced digital evidence to this effect and that proved crucial in Kumar's conviction.Vismaya, a BAMS student and a native of Nilamel in Kollam district, married Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector Kumar on May 30, 2020. She was found dead at her husband's house at Poruvazhy in the district on June 21, 2021 under mysterious circumstances.
Vismaya's family had alleged that she was tortured by her husband who demanded more dowry. Kumar was not happy with the new car and the set of gold jewellery given to him by Vismaya's parents.
Voice messages to prove crucial
Vismaya sent this voice message to her father nine days after the marriage. In the audio clip, Vismaya told her father that if she continued to stay at her husband's house, she might commit suicide and hence, she could not stay there anymore. Similar voice messages were in circulation just after her death. This made the relatives smell foul play and approach the police. During the police investigation, Kumar was arrested. He was later dismissed from the service by the government
The verdict will be pronounced by the court on Monday after a fourmonth-long trial. The verdict is going to come, 11 months and two days after Vismaya's death.
The police earlier submitted a charge-sheet running into 507 pages to the court. From the prosecution side, 41 witnesses deposed before the court. As many as 118 documents and 12 mainours were produced before the court.
The accused's father Sadashivan Pillai, sister Keerthi, her husband Mukesh M Nair, the accused's cousin Anil Kumar and his wife Bindu Kumari turned hostile during the trial stage.
