Husband acquitted in snake bite ‘murder’ case in Hyderabad

UDUPI: The Second Additional District and Sessions Court in Udupi has acquitted 43-year-old Dr Suresh Prabhu and six others accused of killing the former’s wife near Hebri in Udupi district in 2010 by injecting her with snake venom and trying to pass it off as an accidental death.   

The victim, Bhagirathi, was aged 32 at the time of her death in 2010.  The couple had a daughter who was eight years old at the time of Bhagirathi’s death. Suresh was accused of conniving with six others to 
hatch a conspiracy to kill Bhagirathi. According to the police, Suresh was not on good terms with his wife.
Suresh, hailing from Hebri and working as an associate professor at Government Medical College in Hassan, was married to Bhagirathi for 10 years.

Suresh had told police that he was travelling with his wife from Hassan to Hebri. At a place called Tenkola near Belanje village, their car had a flat tyre.  As it was night, Suresh had told police that he was changing the tyre, while his wife went to the side of the road to attend to nature’s call. 

Suresh had claimed he heard his wife scream and rushed to find that she had been bitten by some poisonous creature on her left sole. He carried her back to the car, tied a string above the bite and took her to the nearest nursing home. 

Doctors at a nursing home in Hebri had directed him to take her to District Government Hospital in Udupi where she was declared dead. However, the brother of Bhagirathi, NV Kumar,  had filed a complaint with the police accusing Suresh of killing his sister.  On Friday, the judge passed an order acquitting all seven following the failure of the prosecution to prove their argument with proper evidence.