Man gets life sentence for double murder in 2008

Mangalore Today News Network

Puttur, Aug 13, 2016: Reports state that the additional District and Sessions Court in Puttur in Dakshina Kannada on Aug 12,Friday sentenced to death Jayesh convicted of the murder of his sister-in-law and her three-year-old son eight years ago, declaring it as a rarest of rare cases.

M. Ramachandra, V Additional District and Sessions Judge, convicted Jayesh alias Shahir alias Shakir of the offence of murder, arguments on the quantum of sentence concluded on Aug 10, Wednesday. The judge pronounced sentence later.

Recap : Jayesh, according to the prosecution, murdered Sowmya (23), wife of his cousin Lohith alias Lava and their son Jishnu on August 2, 2008, at their residence in Siribagilu Polyuttu in Shiradi village. He had strangled Sowmya and later stabbed her as well as Jishnu before fleeing with her Mangalya and ear-rings.

Lohith lodged a complaint with the Uppinangady police that when he returned from work from Gundya on that day, Jayesh, who was inside his residence, fled on seeing him. Inside the house, Sowmya and Jishnu were lying in a pool of blood even as the valuables on Sowmya’s body were missing.

Jayesh remained untraceable till 2012 when he was caught by the Malappuram district police in Kerala on October 10 that year.

In Kerala, Jayesh had allegedly married a Muslim girl and got converted to Islam. Pursuant to a quarrel with his wife, he is said to have climbed up a coconut tree, requiring the intervention of the police. Then, the Uppinangady police took him into custody on October 11, 2012.  Once during trial, Jayesh had made an attempt to escape from judicial custody when he was brought for examination in April this year. However, he was caught by the public and advocates outside the Puttur court complex.

The investigation was initially conducted by the then Puttur Rural Circle Inspector of Police C.R. Raveesh, who is now Deputy Superintendent of Police, Bantwal, and Uppinangady Police Sub Inspector M.G. Nayak, now Inspector, Mangaluru East Police Station, Suresh Kumar, CPI, Puttur Town and others. Public Prosecutors Shivaprasad Alva and Uday Kumar conducted the prosecution’s case since the beginning and ensured that it reached a logical end, said a release from the Superintendent of Police, Dakshina Kannada.