Sharon Raj murder: Greeshma plotted slow death by poisoning and how Kerala police nailed her

In the course of the investigation of Sharon Raj's murder, the police had to undo a complex web of lies presented by Greeshma, who was given the death penalty by the court on Monday. The local police who initially recorded the crime as an unnatural death stumbled upon lack of any plausible evidence to initiate a probe into the murder angle.

Until Sharon gave the statement to the magistrate saying that Greeshma had given him an ayurvedic concoction following which he developed complications, he had insisted that he hadn't suspected anyone. The parents of Sharon had, however, noticed that Sharon often developed uneasiness whenever he came home after meeting Greeshma. They recounted these instances to the media as they mounted pressure on the police for a detailed probe. 

When the investigation was handed over to the Crime Branch, Greeshma was prepared but not without leaving a digital trail, which eventually led to her. A marathon questioning by Crime Branch spanning 10 hours eventually broke her and Greeshma confessed. Before that happened, she did everything to mislead the police. She would say that an auto driver had also consumed juice on the same day she gave it to Sharon, and the driver hadn't complained of any discomfort. She also came up with an explanation that she was taking ayurvedic medicine for back pain and a doctor had prescribed it. A probe would reveal that the shop she had referred to had been shifted from the place almost a year ago. The doctor also denied ever prescribing a medicine for Greeshma.

A video of the juice challenge also caught the attention of police. This led to information on her browsing history on sites where she scoured for information on ways of poisoning and types of impact of an overdose of medicine. The cops also tracked the shop owner who had sold the juice bottles and he was made a witness. The police learnt that she had explored ways of slow poisoning and planned a gradual death for Sharon.

"There were a lot of contradictions in her statements. We were able to confront her with the backing of strong digital evidence. We were able to come up with a chain of events that happened. The case was taken over from local police because we felt that it needed constant monitoring and better resources. We also constituted a special investigation team which was key to building the scientific evidence," said D Shilpa, who was the then Thiruvananthapuram rural SP.

Police officials associated with the probe recollected how adamant Greeshma was. "The police had come under a lot of criticism in the initial phase of the investigation. She was academically bright and she was so adamant in her statement that she didn't attempt to murder Sharon. We could come up with evidence contradicting her statements and eventually she gave in," said V T Rasith, DySP who was part of the probe.