The Kozhikode Special Additional Sessions Court (Marad cases) on Tuesday acquitted all the accused in the 2017 murder of Meethal Sreedharan of Mokeri in Kozhikode district.
The accused are Parimal Haldar, 52, a native of West Bengal; Sreedharan’s wife, Girija, 43; and Girija’s mother Devi, 67. Sreedharan was found dead on July 8, 2017. The hasty burial of the body, claiming Sreedharan’s death to be a case of cardiac arrest, kindled doubts among some neighbours who took up the matter with the Kuttiyadi police. The local residents also expressed suspicion over some strange marks on his body and launched a protest.
The police later exhumed the body and arrested the three on August 3, 2017, after it was revealed in the post-mortem examination that Sreedharan was poisoned and strangled to death. According to the police, Parimal executed the act with the support of the other two. The accused were charged with Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code which can lead to a death sentence or life imprisonment. Judge S.R. Syamlal, however, cleared them of the charges and acquitted them.
