Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Jan 9: The Karnataka high court (HC), through a verdict delivered on Tuesday January 8,       confirmed life term awarded to accused in the murder of woman at Vittal in the taluk in the year 2011. The case is known as Saraswati murder case.

Raveesh, husband of the victim, Saraswati, and his mother, Parvati, had pleaded with the high court to annul the judgement delivered by the first additional district and sessions court at Mangaluru. The subordinate court had awarded life sentence to both the accused. The high court division bench comprising Justice K N Phaneendra and Justice B A Patil upheld the judgement of the lower court and dismissed the appeal filed by the two held guilty by the sessions court.

Raveesh from Vittal had suspicion about the character of his wife, Saraswati. He had discussed this issue with his mother, Parvati. Parvati had suggested to him to murder Saraswati. The two had together planned the murder and executed it on February 17, 2011. Vittal police, who investigated the case, had filed chargesheet in the court.

Son of the couple, Lohitashwa, who was nine years old when the murder happened, had adduced evidence in the case and identified his own father and grandmother as the murderers of his mother. During the police questioning, he told them that his father and grandmother had hacked his mother in the front hall of the house with a sickle to death. The first additional district and sessions court at Mangaluru had relied on this evidence in deciding the case. The division bench of the high court too said that the evidence of Lohitashwa was reliable, before upholding the sentence.