Kerala techie, lover guilty of killing kid, MIL

Thiruvananthapuram: An IT professional and his woman colleague and lover were on Friday found guilty by a local court of killing her three-year-old daughter and mother-in-law and attempting to murder her husband on April 16, 2014. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced later.

Nino Mathew and Anu Shanti, both software engineers working with an IT company in Technopark, were found guilty by Principal Sessions Judge V Shersy. According to the prosecution, Nino Mathew, the first accused, had hacked to death his paramour Anu Shanti's daughter Swastika and mother-in-law Omana (60) and also made a vain attempt to murder her husband Lijesh, who escaped with injuries.

Public Prosecutor Vineet Kumar said the accused were found guilty under Section 120B (conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 449 (criminal trespassing), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 380 (theft) of IPC and 67A of the IT Act. Forty-nine witnesses were examined and 85 documents were used as evidence, besides 41 material evidence.

The prosecution said they felt it was the 'rarest of rare' cases and maximum punishment should be given to the accused. The court also took cognisance of digital evidence and proof produced by forensic science laboratory. Video clippings seized from the laptop of the accused were also accepted as evidence by the court.

The first accused, after committing the twin murders, had waited for nearly half an hour at the crime spot for Lijesh, who was not at home at the time of the incident. Lijesh, who was attacked, managed to run out of the house and alerted neighbours, leading to Mathew's arrest, police said.

His statement identifying the accused was the crucial evidence in the case. Police had seized the tools used for the murder and bloodstained clothes during a raid at Mathew's house.