The Shocking Scheme Behind Uthra Sooraj’s Tragic End

A Deceptive Love Story Unveiled

Uthra Sooraj was a 25-year-old Indian woman when she met Sooraj Kumar, who was 28 years old. She was a girl deeply connected to her family and much loved by her parents. She led a happy and carefree life and thought she had found her life partner when she met and married Sooraj, unaware that this man would actually plot something unforgivable against her life in the most meticulous and sneaky way possible.

Sooraj came from a humble family background; his father was a car driver, and his mother, a homemaker. Uthra, on the other hand, hailed from a more financially privileged family, with her father being a merchant and her mother a retired school principal. They met in 2018 through a matrimonial matchmaking service, which is common in India.

When the two young people got married, Sooraj received a dowry from Uthra’s parents valued at 768 grams of gold, approximately 47 thousand dollars. Additionally, he received a Suzuki sedan, 400 thousand rupees in cash, approximately 4.500 dollars, and a monthly allowance of 8 thousand rupees.

The Sinister Plan for Greed

Everything seemed fine for the couple, and they even had a child in 2019. However, Sooraj was not content with the dowry he received, and thus began planning the sick idea of ending Uthra’s life to obtain her money and possessions, intending to marry another woman thereafter.

He was determined to execute this plan without raising suspicions. His strategy was for his wife to die from the venomous bite of a snake. It was during this time that Sooraj began researching venomous snakes on the internet, indicating what was to come. He began sharing with friends the belief that his wife was cursed by a serpent and destined to lose her life to a snakebite.

He started watching many videos, including those of a renowned snake handler on YouTube, about the Russell’s viper, considered the most dangerous and aggressive. Determined to carry out his plan, Sooraj contacted a snake hunter, acquired a Russell’s viper, and hid it at home.

Failed Attempts and Unrelenting Determination

On March 27, 2023, Sooraj released the snake on the floor of the house and asked his wife to fetch her phone upstairs. Upon returning, she found the snake coiled on the marble floor and screamed. Sooraj appeared, handled the snake with a stick, and took it outside.

This attempt failed, but the man was resolute in his plan and decided to try again. In a subsequent attempt, during the night, Sooraj even put sedatives in the pudding his wife would eat. When the sedative took effect and Uthra went to bed, Sooraj released the snake onto her, and the snake attacked, biting Uthra’s leg, causing her to wake up screaming in pain.

The Snake, the Sedatives, and the Dark Night

The snake was released out of the window, but the victim, swollen and hemorrhaging, faced a difficult search for medical care, taking over two hours to find a hospital that offered intensive treatment. Uthra underwent three skin graft surgeries and managed to survive. After being discharged, she went to her parents’ home to recover.

Meanwhile, Sooraj remained at his home but was already planning another attack. Despite the failure of the second attempt, he did not give up on his plan. In India, where snakebites are common, no one initially suspected foul play, and Sooraj continued researching snakes and poisons on the internet.

In April, he spent 7 thousand rupees, approximately 100 dollars, to acquire an Indian cobra, one of the most venomous snakes in the world. With the snake in his possession, he made a small hole in a plastic container to allow air entry, ensuring the snake could breathe, and brought the container home.

Three days later, he placed the container in a bag and walked 27 miles to his father-in-law’s house, supposedly to visit his recovering wife. Upon arrival, he offered Uthra a glass of fruit juice mixed with a sedative, causing her to fall asleep once again. Sooraj removed the snake from the container and threw it onto the sleeping wife, but instead of attacking her, the snake escaped.

Sooraj recaptured the snake and threw it again onto his sleeping wife. In the second attempt, the snake slithered away once more, prompting Sooraj to make a third attempt, where he held the snake by the head and forced it to bite Uthra’s left arm.

Suspicion Arises: Unraveling the Crime Scene

After the crime, the snake hid on a shelf in the room all night. Recognizing that snakes usually don’t attack unless provoked, Sooraj deleted the records of his actions on his phone and disposed of the tools used. When Uthra’s mother entered the room in the morning, she found her daughter lying with her mouth open and her left hand shaking.

She noticed Sooraj was in the living room and asked why he hadn’t checked if his wife was awake. Sooraj replied that he didn’t want to disturb her sleep.

The family rushed her to the hospital, where doctors declared her deceased. The police were immediately alerted, and the autopsy report revealed two puncture wounds on the left forearm, less than an inch apart, containing snake venom and sedatives in Uthra’s system. The snake venom could cause paralysis of respiratory muscles, and according to the autopsy, this was crucial in her death.

A week after his daughter’s death, Vijayasenan, Uthra’s father, contacted the police, alleging suspicions in his daughter’s death. Her parents stated that because Uthra and her husband were sleeping in an air-conditioned room, it would be difficult for the snake to enter unnoticed, as doors and windows were closed.

Justice Served: The Trial and Sentencing of Sooraj Kumar

The police further asserted that it was unlikely for a snake to enter the couple’s room through such a high window, as the room was on the second floor of the house. The crime scene was recreated using a live snake, a snake handler, and a mannequin of the victim in bed.

Experts claimed that snakes are not very active at night, and whenever a snake was placed on the mannequin, it slid off to the floor and headed to a dark corner of the room, even when provoked they did not attempt to bite.

To recreate the scene more accurately, they held the snake by the neck and induced it to bite a piece of chicken tied to the plastic hand of the mannequin. The distance between the bites the snake gave was exactly the same as found on Ultra’s arm.

Additionally, during investigations, they found that Sooraj had left the snake without food for several days, possibly indicating a strategy to increase its hunger and consequently its aggressiveness, ensuring a more certain attack.

After a 78-day investigation and detailed charges in over a thousand pages, the trial began. Over 90 people, including hematologists and doctors, testified, and the prosecution built its theory using call records, internet histories, an exhumed dead snake in the garden, and evidence that he purchased not just one, but two snakes.

Investigators also discovered that Sooraj bought the Russell’s viper that had bitten his wife months earlier, leading her through the painful recovery period. The underground snake hunter confessed to selling the snakes to Sooraj, and the hematologist testified in court, highlighting the connection between the venom and the death.

Sooraj was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to life imprisonment. When the judge announced the life imprisonment sentence, Sooraj showed no remorse, as stated by the public prosecutor in the case. He also stated, “This is a milestone in police investigations in India, where prosecutors were able to decisively prove that an animal was used as a weapon in a homicide.”

Even after the trial, and despite all the evidence, Renuka, Sooraj’s mother, continued to claim that her son was involved in a case of false accusation in Uthra’s murder. She alleged that Uthra’s father set a trap for Sooraj after he spent large sums of money.

Because of this, the police began to suspect that Sooraj’s mother and sister were involved in the entire case. After further investigations, they were arrested, accused of domestic violence and destruction of evidence in the murder case.

After losing both parents, custody of the couple’s child was given to Uthra’s parents. They even changed the boy’s name. He had already been named, but since this name had been chosen by Sooraj and his family, the grandparents decided to change his name as a way to start a new life and be happy away from the biological father.