Thiruvananthapuram: The Uthra murder case that shocked the conscience of Kerala is now in front of the readers as a book. A book titled “Fangs of Death” A True Story of Kerala Snake Bite Murder has been published by Amaryllis Publications. The book was written by former Uttarakhand DGP Alok Lal and his son Manas Lal. The book is available on Amazon. The price is Rs 399. Uthra was killed by her husband Sooraj using a snake on May 20th in Anchal, Kollam.
The incident of people being bitten and killed by snakes has been reported twice in the country before this. It was in Pune and Nagpur in Maharashtra. The case was that a wife and her boyfriend used a snake to kill her husband in Pune. In Nagpur, the son himself committed murder by carving a snake to steal his parents’ property. But in these two cases, the trial courts acquitted the accused in the absence of evidence, and it was assessed as a failure of the Maharashtra police. The fact that there was no similar verdict in the Uthra case was considered as an achievement of the Kerala Police.
Meanwhile, in the Uttara murder case, the court has sentenced Suraj to life imprisonment under four sections of IPC 302 (murder), IPC 307 (attempt to murder), IPC 328 (murder using poison) and IPC 201 (destruction of evidence). Suresh, a native of Kalluwathukkal, who was the first accused in the case, was later made an apologetic witness by the police. Suraj was spared the death penalty due to his age and lack of involvement in the crimes. 11 members of the team that investigated the murder case were awarded the badge of honor by the state police chief.
