A court in Kollam, Kerala on Friday sentenced Biju Radhakrishnan, main perpetrator of the infamous solar scam, to life imprisonment for murdering his wife Rasmi eight years back.
The court also slapped on him a fine of Rs 2.10 lakh. Judge Ashok Menon of the District and Sessions Court, Kollam awarded three years’ imprisonment to Biju’s mother Rajammal for persecuting Rasmi over dowry issue. The court had the other day found both Biju and Rajammal guilty of committing the crimes the Prosecution had accused them of. As per the case, Biju had killed his wife Rasmi by strangling her after making her drink alcohol forcibly on the night of February 3, 2006. Biju killed Rasmi in order to marry Saritha S Nair, his former live-in partner and another key accused in the solar scam, and because of his realisation that Rasmi did not have the kind of wealth he had earlier thought she had.
Before the announcement of the quantum of punishment on Friday, Biju told the judge that he was a victim of political conspiracy (in connection with the solar scam) and that he had told Chief Minister Oommen Chandy during their controversial one-hour meeting in Kochi in 2012 that efforts were on to trap him.
He prayed to the judge not to punish him as he had three children to look after, adding that he would prefer to be hanged if the court was indeed going to punish him.
The main witness in the case was his son, who was three years old when the crime took place. The boy had stated that he had seen Biju forcing Rasmi to drink a brown liquid.
Biju was charged with murder, assault, destruction of evidence and torture of witness (his son) all of which were proved in the court.
The judge severely criticised Rajammal, a retired school teacher, saying that she had given the society a wrong message by not acting like a good teacher, mother or grandmother.During the three-month trial, the Prosecution had examined 43 witnesses including Saritha Nair and Biju’s girlfriend and dancer-actress Shalu Menon and the counsel for the accused had examined three witnesses.
The court had the other day dismissed a petition seeking naming of Saritha Nair as an accused in the Rasmi murder case.The police began to suspect Biju in the Rasmi murder case after he was arrested in the case pertaining to the solar scam, perpetrated by him jointly with Saritha Nair with the alleged help of former aides of Chief Minister Chandy. Saritha is presently in judicial custody in connection with several cases related to the solar scam.