Kerala Court awards death penalty to convict in sensational Nenmara double murder case

A court in Kerala's Palakkad district has sentenced 61-year-old Chenthamara to death in the sensational Nenmara double murder case, describing the crime as one of the "rarest of rare" cases. The Additional Sessions Court found him guilty of murdering Sudhakaran and his elderly mother, Lakshmi, at Pothundi near Nenmara in January 2025. The verdict comes a week after the court convicted him in the high-profile case.

According to the prosecution, Chenthamara had earlier been convicted in the 2019 murder of Sudhakaran's wife, Sajitha. After being released on bail in that case, he allegedly carried out the brutal killings of Sudhakaran and Lakshmi in what investigators described as a premeditated act of revenge. During the trial, the prosecution examined 81 witnesses and presented multiple pieces of evidence to establish his guilt.

Family members of the victims welcomed the death sentence, saying they had lived in fear and hoped the judgment would deliver justice. The case had shocked Kerala due to its violent nature and because the accused allegedly committed the murders while out on bail in an earlier murder case.