Kerala: 24-year-old student gets death sentence for poisoning partner to death ahead of wedding

A sessions court in Neyyattinkara, Kerala, today, Monday, January 20, sentenced 24-year-old Greeshma to death for the 2022 murder of Sharon Raj, her partner at the time, as stated in a report by The Indian Express. The case unfolded in Thiruvananthapuram district.  

Greeshma, a postgraduate English student from Kanyakumari, and Sharon, a final-year undergraduate student from Parassala, had been friends since 2021. Sharon’s maternal uncle, Nirmalakumaran Nair, was sentenced to three years in prison for aiding the crime, while Greeshma’s mother, Sindhu, was acquitted last week.  

The prosecution revealed that Greeshma’s family had arranged her marriage to a military officer in March 2022, a proposal she accepted while maintaining her relationship with Sharon. As her wedding date neared, she allegedly devised a plan to kill Sharon to avoid potential conflicts.  

Investigators found that she conducted extensive online searches about the effects of painkillers and made repeated attempts to poison Sharon by spiking his water and juice. When these attempts failed, she reportedly challenged him to drink juice mixed with tablets.  

On October 14, 2022, Greeshma invited Sharon to her house and served him an Ayurvedic drink laced with herbicide. Sharon, unaware of the tampering due to the drink’s naturally bitter taste, fell severely ill after leaving her home. Despite hospitalisation, he succumbed to multiple organ failure on October 25.  

Before his death, Sharon expressed suspicions about being poisoned by Greeshma and confided to a friend that she had “cheated” on him. Following his passing, his family lodged a police complaint, leading to Greeshma’s arrest on October 31. Her uncle and mother were also taken into custody on charges of aiding and covering up the crime.  

The case was registered under multiple Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections, including 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence). Police revealed that Greeshma admitted to planning the murder out of fear that Sharon might share intimate visuals with her fiancé.