An Indian court, on Wednesday, handed a rare double life sentence to a man who murdered his wife, 25, by making a cobra bite her while she was sleeping.
Domestic media reported that Sooraj Kumar, 28, was arrested at his home in southern Kerala state in 2020 after his wife died from snakebite.
A court in Kollam district held Kumar guilty of murder.
Judge M Manoj, sentenced the accused to two consecutive life sentences but did not accept the prosecution demand for capital punishment considering his age and opportunity to reform.
Her family had alleged that her husband was harassing them for a dowry.
India’s Supreme Court recently warned about a trend of snake-bite murders, as it denied bail to a woman and her lover accused of using a cobra to kill her mother-in-law in the northern state of Rajasthan in 2019.
The prosecutor said the court was presented with a test that showed the difference between natural and induced bite marks.
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