Woman in India handed death penalty for poisoning boyfriend

A woman in India’s southern state of Kerala has been sentenced to death for killing her boyfriend by poisoning him, becoming the youngest and only second woman in the state to be handed capital punishment.

SS Greeshma, 24, was convicted of poisoning her boyfriend Sharon Raj in October 2020 by making him drink a pesticide-laced drink under the pretext of giving him a traditional medicinal concoction.

Prosecutors said the drink caused Raj to suffer multiple organ failure. He died in hospital after receiving treatment for 11 days.

A sessions court in the town of Neyyattinkara said the murder charge met the “rarest of the rare” threshold required for the death sentence. Greeshma was also sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for kidnapping in order to murder and an additional five years and two years for causing harm by poison and destroying evidence respectively.

Her maternal uncle Nirmalakumaran Nair was sentenced to three years imprisonment for his role in the conspiracy while her mother, who was also investigated, was acquitted last year.

Judge AM Basheer called the murder “diabolic and depraved”.

“Taking into consideration all the facts and materials, it is crystal clear that the entire act of convict amounts to a barbaric and inhuman behaviour of the highest order,” the judge said in the ruling, according to The Hindu.

“The manner in which the murder was carried out in the present case is extremely brutal, gruesome, diabolical and revolting as to shock the collective conscience of the community.”

The police investigation into the case revealed that Greeshma wanted to break up with Sharon and was already engaged with another man, whom she intended to marry.

Prosecutors said Raj refused to end their relationship and Greeshma then hatched a plan to murder him.

A key piece of evidence in the case involved a video Raj had recorded of the concoction before he consumed it, with police saying he suspected foul play at the time.

Over 95 witnesses were examined in the trial which began in October 2024 and concluded on 3 January 2025 in what was described as a challenging case by investigators, who said Greeshma tried to mislead them.

"The act of inviting Sharon over under the pretext of sexual intimacy and subsequently committing the crime cannot be ignored. It is the State’s responsibility to ensure punishment for criminal acts,” a judge said during the trial.

“Evidence such as Sharon recording a video of the suspicious juice, despite Greeshma asking him not to record, indicates that he suspected something was wrong. Sharon fought for his life for 11 days without even consuming a drop of water.”

Greeshma can still appeal her sentence in a higher court.

Greeshma becomes the 35th person handed a death sentence in Kerala, although actual executions are rare in the state. Kerala last carried out a death sentence on a convict 33 years ago with the execution of convicted serial killer Muthukutty Chandran in 1991.