A Kerala court on Monday (January 20, 2025) sentenced 24-year-old Greeshma to death in the Sharon Raj murder case. While giving the sentence, the court said that leniency cannot be taken in view of his young age and educational qualification. Additional Sessions Court Judge AM Bashir has sentenced Grishma to death for killing her boyfriend Sharon Raj by poisoning. Regarding this decision, an organization has announced to ‘paal anoint’ Justice AM Bashir with milk on Wednesday (January 22, 2025).
According to Bar & Bench report, All Kerala Men’s Association (AKMA) has announced to honor the judge through a religious tradition. Pal Abhishek is a religious ritual. This organization will anoint Justice AM Bashir’s pal by offering milk on his cutout. This program will be held outside the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. In the press release issued by AKMA, it was said that rightwing activist and public commentator Rahul Ishwar will inaugurate the program. AKMA has also planned to release firecrackers during this period.
On one hand, AKMA is very happy with the judge’s decision, while on the other hand, former judge of Kerala High Court and many people have raised questions on the decision to hang the woman. Retired High Court judge Justice Kemal Pasha has openly criticized the Sessions Court’s decision. He said that this judgment is against the principles which the Supreme Court has laid down for years regarding death penalty. AKMA is also planning to protest against Justice Kemal Pasha.
While delivering the verdict on Monday, Justice AM Bashir had said that the killing of Sharon Raj was planned and implemented very brilliantly. Sharon Raj died on October 14, 2022 due to multiple organ failure. The court said in its 588-page judgment that Grishma had given Sharon an Ayurvedic mixture, which also contained poisonous substances, due to which Sharon’s liver, lungs and many organs got damaged in just 11 days.
According to the report of The New Indian Express, it was told during the hearing that Grishma and Sharon had come into a relationship in 2021 and both of them had also got married unofficially, but only after a year, Grishma’s family decided to marry a boy working in the Indian Army. Got her engaged to. After this, Grishma wanted to break the relationship with Sharon and tried to convince Sharon several times for this, but she did not agree.
Sharon’s family lawyer had told the court that a few months ago in 2022, Grishma had tried to take Sharon’s life by making her drink poisonous juice. He mixed 50 paracetamol tablets in the juice and raced Sharon to drink the juice. However, Sharon threw away the juice after taking one sip because it tasted very bitter.
After this, in October, Grishma made another plan and called Sharon to her house. After calling her home, she made Sharon drink an Ayurvedic tonic, which contained poisonous substances. As soon as he drank it he vomited. A witness in the case and a friend of Sharon also told that while going home, Sharon had vomited several times on the way. After this, Sharon’s health started deteriorating and many of her organs got damaged and she died on October 14, 2022.
On October 31, Grishma was arrested and several cases were registered against her under various sections for murder, kidnapping and concealment of evidence. The names of his uncle and mother also came up in this case. However, due to lack of evidence the mother was released, while uncle Nirmalkumaran Nair was sentenced to three years.
To save Grishma from the death penalty, her parents had argued in the court that she was their only daughter. At the same time, the court had asked Sharon’s parents to be present on the day Grishma was sentenced. When the court sentenced Grishma to death, Sharon’s parents cried bitterly in the court.
