The court will pronounce the order on the sentence on December 5.
Thiruvananthapuram:
A local court in Kerala today convicted two men for the rape and murder of a Latvian woman tourist who went missing from Kovalam near Thiruvananthapuram in 2018.
The Thiruvananthapuram Sessions Court convicted the accused Umesh and Udayan under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including rape and murder of a 33-year-old Latvian tourist who went missing under mysterious circumstances from Kovalam on March 14, 2018.
The accused were found guilty on the basis of circumstantial evidence and the court will pronounce the sentence on December 5.
“The body was found after 38 days and in a decomposed state because of which we lost a lot of biological evidence but the police were able to build a case based on circumstantial evidence and the prosecution was able to successfully prove it in court.” the prosecutor told the media.
The highly decomposed and headless body of the woman was recovered from a mangrove forest in nearby Tiruvallam on April 21, 2018 and the accused Umesh and Udayan were arrested on May 3, 2018.
Interacting with the media outside the court premises in Thiruvananthapuram, IGP P Prakash said he was very happy to know about the verdict.
Mr. Prakash was the city’s police commissioner at the time of the incident.
“We are just happy that we could bring the culprits to justice. There were many issues in the case. The body was found in a very decomposed state. It was a very challenging case. The local people were not cooperating in the case. It It is an issue related to a foreign woman. We were able to get justice to her family,” Mr Prakash said.
The accused were charged under IPC sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and Section 20(b) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances NDPS Act.
Police had said that the woman was raped and murdered by two drug peddlers on March 14, the same day she went missing.
He said that the accused took her to the spot saying that it was a beautiful and beautiful place, made her drink ganja and then sexually assaulted her and strangulated her to death.