Kochi: Kiran Kumar who was sentenced in the sensational dowry death case of his wife will remain in jail for now as the Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed his plea seeking a stay on his conviction until a verdict on his appeal against the trial court judgment.
The former Kerala Government employee was awarded 10 years jail and over a million rupee fine by the Kollam Additional Sessions Court-1 in May.
According to Live Law, the Division Bench consisting of Justice Alexander Thomas and Justice Sophy Thomas while passing the order clarified that, “It is made clear that the observations and findings in this order are for the limited purpose of this application and will not in any way affect the contentions to be taken by the applicant-appellant in the above appeal.”
The convict in appeal has argued that the findings based on which he was punished were baseless, the Bench stated.
A stay on conviction simply means suspending the punishment that has been awarded to one found guilty of a crime.
The case history
Vismaya, a fourth-year undergraduate student, was found hanging in Kiran's house in Kollam, and he was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 498A (subjecting a woman to cruelty for dowry) and 304B (dowry death).
Vismaya’s parents and brothers had alleged after her death that she was a victim of dowry harassment.
They produced digital evidence to this effect and that proved crucial in Kumar's conviction.
Vismaya married Kiran, an Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector, on May 30, 2020. She was found dead at Kiran's house at Poruvazhy on June 21, 2021 in mysterious circumstances. Kiran was apparently not happy with the new car and the set of gold jewellery given to him by Vismaya's parents.
Vismaya sent this voice message to her father nine days after the marriage.
In the audio clip, Vismaya told her father that if she continued to stay at her husband's house, she might commit suicide and hence, she could not stay there anymore.
Similar voice messages were in circulation just after her death. This made the relatives smell foul play and approach the police.
During the police investigation, Kiran was arrested. He was later dismissed from the service by the government.
The verdict was pronounced by the court after a four-month-long trial.
