Anad Sunitha murder case: Court finds husband guilty

Thiruvananthapuram: The sixth additional district sessions court on Friday found Joy Antony, husband of Anad resident Sunitha, guilty of murdering her nine years ago and destroying evidence after the crime.
Judge K Vishnu has found Joy (43) guilty of murdering Sunitha (35) of Jeena Bhavan at Thavalottukonam near Venkavila in Anad on August 3, 2013, and the quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Tuesday. After remanding him, the court revoked the accused's bail and transferred him to the central jail.
Additional public prosecutor M Salahuddin pleaded for maximum punishment for the accused, calling it the rarest of the rare offenses. "The accused acted very cruelly, and he deserves maximum punishment," said M Salahuddin.
The deceased Sunitha was Joy’s third wife, and he wanted to marry another woman for dowry. However, Sunitha was not willing to leave him. Joy then plotted to kill her.
On the day of the incident, he quarrelled with her over a call she received on her mobile phone. Joy then hit her on the head with a shovel. After she fell unconscious, he set her on fire.
To destroy evidence, the accused later cut her body into pieces and kept them in a sack inside the house for three days. In the meantime, he cleaned the house and burned the dress that she was wearing.
The accused then dumped the body parts in the septic tank and told their two daughters that Sunitha eloped with an unidentified man.
He told the neighbours and relatives that Sunitha had not come back from her place of work. It was this contradiction that made the police suspect him.
During the investigation, a team of police headed by RDO recovered Sunitha’s body parts from the septic tank on August 17.