A sessions court in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday awarded double life sentence to two convicts nearly four years after they brutally raped and murdered a female Latvian tourist in Kovalam, a prime beach destination in southern Kerala.
Both – Umesh (24) and Udaya Kumar (28) – have been asked to also pay a fine of ₹1.65 each. They were found guilty for murder (section 302), rape (section 376), destruction of evidence (section 206) under the Indian Penal Code, and section 20(B) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Though the additional sessions court said it was one of the rarest of rare cases, both were exempted from death sentence considering their age. When the court asked them whether they regret their actions, both remained silent and denied committing the crime.
The convicts, one a small-time guide and the other a drug peddler, are history-sheeters, the prosecution said. The court found them guilty on Friday.
“I am really happy my sister finally got justice. The current sentence is more than the noose and it will act as a strong deterrent against such crimes,” she said on social media from the Netherlands, where she resides. Public prosecutor Mohanraj said he was satisfied with the verdict.
Also read:2 held guilty in Kerala in Latvian’s rape-murder
The 33-year-old tourist came to Kerala with her sister in February 2018 for an Ayurvedic treatment but went missing from the treatment centre on March 14, 2018. Her sister travelled throughout the state and announced rewards for any news, to no avail. A month later, the woman’s body was recovered from a thick mangrove near Kovalam on April 21, 2018. The sister identified her body, cremated it and took ashes back to her country.
According to the prosecution, the duo got friendly with the tourist and lured her to a scenic spot near the beach before offering her marijuana-laced beedi. The men then sexually assaulted her and strangled the woman to death with her shawl when she regained consciousness and threatened to approach the police.
They also tried to cover it up as suicide and tied her body to a tree. But the post-mortem report found that she was drugged heavily, physically assaulted and strangulated to death.
Last year, the Kerala high court directed the Thiruvananthapuram sessions court to fast-track the trial and pronounce its verdict. The prosecution examined 30 witnesses during five-month trial, while two turned hostile.
