Kollam: The Kerala police team with the help of the State Training Institute of the Forest Department probed the murder of 25-year-old Uthra reconstructing the crime scene using a live snake and a dummy doll.
The demonstration was carried out at the state training centre at Arippa in Kollam district last year; however, a video of the unique experiment was released to the media on Thursday (August 26, 2021). The demonstration video of the crime scene has been submitted to the court and it is expected to be a crucial piece of evidence legal proceedings.
The police team used a mannequin dummy of the same size as Uthra for the experiment. In the video, despite repeated provocations by the investigators, the snake doesn’t bite the dummy. But it finally bit when a piece of chicken meat was tied to the hand of the mannequin doll and waved it before the live Cobra. The snake was provoked to bite on the meat and then the depth of the wound was measured to record the difference between the wound of natural snakebite and the wound caused when a snake is made to bite.
The natural snakebite was measured 1.7 cm in width by the police officials in the process. While the next two induced bites were 2 cm and 2.4 cm respectively, according to the police sources.
Uthra was found dead at her house in Anchal, Kerala on May 7, 2020. She was allegedly killed by her husband Sooraj, who had planned her murder by giving her sleeping pills before planting the venomous Indian Cobra that bit her to death.
Police suspect a financial angle as a motive behind the murder. While Sooraj has been arrested in the murder case and his family have levied charges of domestic violence and assisting him in plotting the murder of Uthra.
The police officials are adopting scientific methods to investigate the case, including dummy trial.