Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)
Puttur, Sep 1: The fifth additional sessions judge here, M Ramachandra, has sentenced Ramesh from Kokkada village to life imprisonment, holding him guilty of murdering a girl student in March 2012. An additional seven years of imprisonment has also been handed down to him for destruction of evidence. Ramesh has further been order to pay a fine of Rs 6,500.
Ramesh from Kokkada had been accused of suffocating Pushpalata (19), a resident of Shantigodu village, to death by tightening the veil of her churidar around her neck. After killing her, Ramesh had tossed the body of the girl student into River Netravati after removing her ornaments. Pushpalata, a second year BA degree course student of Subrahmanya College had gone missing on March 18, 2012.
Searches proved futile, and her body was found lying on the bank of River Kumadhara at Valakadama in Koila village the next day.
There were injury marks on the head and hands of Pushpa, which gave rise to suspicion that she would have been murdered. The Kadaba police, who registered the case, took into custody Ramesh and questioned him. Ramesh admitted to his crime, and Pushpa's mobile phone and anklet were found from the home of the accused. The police had confiscated a motor bike owned by the accused, and he was also taken to Vodadabagalu in Volakadama where the girl student had been murdered.
The police took into possession Pushpa's clothes, which had been hidden by Ramesh on the river bank.
Both Ramesh and Pushpalata were in love with each other. Ramesh, after killing his lover and dumping her body into the river at Valakadama in Koila village, had tried to project as if the girl had slipped and fallen into the river.
Out of the above fine, the court has ordered Rs 4,000 to be disbursed to parents of Pushpalata as compensation.
The then public prosecutor, K Shivaprasad Alva, as well as current public prosecutor, Uday Kumar, had argued the case on behalf of the prosecution.