Chenthamara, a man from Pothundi in the Nenmara area of Palakkad district in Kerala, was convicted of three murders committed in two separate events more than five years apart. On August 31, 2019 he killed a neighbor, Sajitha, a woman of 35. On January 27, 2025 he killed her husband, Sudhakaran, and her husband's mother, Lakshmi. The second event took place while he was out on bail in the first case, under a court order that barred him from the village panchayat in which the victims lived.
The Palakkad Additional District and Sessions Court-IV, presided over by Judge Kenneth George, tried both cases. On October 18, 2025 it sentenced him to double life imprisonment for the death of Sajitha. On July 13, 2026 it convicted him of two counts of murder and of wrongful restraint for the deaths of Sudhakaran and Lakshmi, and on July 20, 2026 it sentenced him to death, holding that the case fell within the "rarest of rare" category. Under Indian procedure a death sentence passed by a sessions court cannot be carried out until the High Court confirms it, and the case was being forwarded to the Kerala High Court for that purpose.
The trial court in the second case found that the response to the family's warnings had been inadequate. The judgment ordered compensation and rehabilitation for the surviving relatives and directed that the witness protection scheme be enforced.
Pothundi is a settlement near the town, and the accused and the victims lived there as neighbors. Chenthamara was 58 at the time of his arrest in January 2025 and 61 when he was sentenced in July 2026. The mitigation material put to the court in 2026 described a man of limited schooling who had once been the sole earner for his family.
The victims were closely linked. Sajitha was married to Sudhakaran, and Lakshmi was Sudhakaran's mother.
Sajitha was a native of Pothundi and was 35 when she died on August 31, 2019. Nenmara Police Station registered the case as Crime No. 351/2019. The police arrested Chenthamara in 2019, and he remained in custody for about three years.
The prosecution charged him with murder and with two further offenses, under Sections 302, 449 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code, which was the law in force when the offense was committed. The case went to the sessions court as Sessions Case No. 17/2020.
On May 24, 2022 the court released Chenthamara on bail in the 2019 case, in an order recorded as CMP 1410/2022. The order barred him from entering the limits of Nenmara Police Station. On October 4, 2023 a further order, CMP 4179/2023, narrowed the bar so that it applied only to the limits of Nenmara Grama Panchayat, the local-government area, and it was to remain in force until the conclusion of the trial.
He returned to Pothundi about two months before the January 2025 killings. The prosecution later told the 2026 court that he had stayed within the panchayat in breach of the bail conditions. When the court asked him about this, he offered no explanation.
In the second week of December 2024 a group of residents, among them 64 women, handed the police a letter asking that Chenthamara be moved out of the area, citing threats. On December 29 a member of the family filed a complaint. Police called Chenthamara in and gave him a verbal warning.
In its sentencing order the trial court found that, despite alerts from neighbors and from the family, the response had been limited to a warning, and it stated that the State's witness protection arrangements must be enforced with accountability and periodic review.
On January 27, 2025, a Monday, Chenthamara killed Sudhakaran, who was 54, and his mother Lakshmi, who was 75, in Pothundi. The police registered the case on the same day as Crime No. 64/2025 at Nenmara Police Station. The court later found that the deaths were planned in advance, that the two victims had given no provocation, and that they were vulnerable.
The same day the Additional Director General of Police for law and order asked the district police chief for a report on the alleged negligence in monitoring the accused, and the inspector in charge of Nenmara Police Station was suspended.
Chenthamara was arrested by the Kerala Police on January 29, 2025. Palakkad Superintendent of Police Ajith Kumar and the Deputy Superintendent of Police for the Alathur sub-division briefed the press. He was booked for murder under Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the new criminal code that had replaced the Indian Penal Code, and was held in judicial custody from the date of arrest. His bail in the 2019 case was revoked.
The investigation was led by the Nenmara and Alathur police and was completed within 56 days, which the trial court later praised. The police filed a charge sheet of 480 pages in the magistrate's court at Alathur naming Chenthamara as the sole accused. The magistrate committed the case to the sessions court by an order dated June 10, 2025 (CP No. 17/2025), and it became Sessions Case No. 490/2025.
The trial in the first case had run for nearly six years. On Tuesday, October 14, 2025 Judge Kenneth George found Chenthamara guilty on all counts. The sentence was pronounced on Saturday, October 18, 2025, the date on which the judgment was recorded.
The sentence was double life imprisonment, made up of separate life terms for murder and for the offense under Section 449, together with five years for the offense under Section 201. The terms ran concurrently. The court declined to treat the case as one of the "rarest of rare" and so did not impose death. Fines were also imposed, of which a sum of several lakh rupees was to go to the victim's family.
After the sentence, Chenthamara's counsel said he would move the Kerala High Court. The defense argued that there had been no eyewitness, that the prosecution had not completed the chain of circumstantial evidence and that the investigation had lapses. It also said it would wait for the detailed judgment, since the order referred only to life imprisonment under Section 302 of the Penal Code.
The court framed charges on October 21, 2025, three days after the sentence in the first case. Chenthamara was charged on two counts under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, for the two deaths, and on two counts under Section 126(2), wrongful restraint. He pleaded not guilty.
Evidence began on February 23, 2026, and the trial was completed in about four months. Public Prosecutor M. J. Vijayakumar led the prosecution, with Jacob Mathew appearing for the defense. The prosecution listed 132 witnesses, and 81 were examined before the court. The court marked 91 documents and 28 material objects as exhibits. The prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence and witness testimony. The defense contended that motive had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
The verdict, due on July 6, 2026, was postponed that day, and a new date was announced soon after.
On Monday, July 13, 2026 the court found Chenthamara guilty of two counts of murder under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and of wrongful restraint under Section 126(2). It rested the conviction on circumstantial evidence. The accused told the court that he had nothing to say and that the court could do what it wished. The judgment recorded that the earlier conviction could be considered only to the limited extent the law allows and could not serve as substantive evidence in this trial.
Arguments on sentence were heard on July 15 and 16, 2026, and the prosecution asked for the death penalty. The court called for three reports. The District Probation Officer found no scope for reformation and a likelihood that he would offend again. A mitigation investigation report, prepared by defense counsel appointed through legal aid, listed poor anger management among his traits and recorded expressions of regret, a stated offer of financial support for a victim's child and good conduct in custody. A report from the custodial authorities noted no record of indiscipline.
When the court asked him to speak, Chenthamara first declined and later expressed no remorse. The court found that his later expressions of reform were not sincere and gave them no weight. It rejected the defense claim that he had been in a state of mental distress, because no evidence supported it. It also rejected an argument based on residual doubt in a case built on circumstantial evidence.
On Monday, July 20, 2026 Judge Kenneth George sentenced Chenthamara to death on each of the two counts of murder, the sentences to run concurrently. He fined him 1,000,000 rupees on each count, 2,000,000 rupees in all, with three years of rigorous imprisonment on each count in default, and imposed one month of simple imprisonment and a fine of 5,000 rupees for wrongful restraint. The restraint term was ordered to run concurrently with the life sentence in the first case.
The court gave its special reasons under Section 393(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Its aggravating findings were premeditation and planning, the vulnerability of the victims and the absence of provocation, the violation of the bail condition after earlier police warnings, the lack of remorse and a continuing justification of the offenses, and a threat to surviving witnesses and neighbors. It treated the mitigating circumstances as effectively nil and the chance of reformation as virtually nil, and it said that the focus of the inquiry was the convict's reformability and the danger he posed, and not the crime alone. It relied on the Supreme Court decisions in Bachan Singh and Machhi Singh, among others.
The order was made subject to confirmation by the Kerala High Court under Section 407(1) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and the proceedings were forwarded for that purpose.
The court directed that any fine recovered be paid to four of the victims' relatives in the ratio 60:20:10:10. Because the accused was said to own no property, the prosecutor indicated that the State might have to meet the sum. The District Legal Services Authority in Palakkad was directed to provide compensation and rehabilitation to the surviving members of both families, the State was directed to provide suitable government employment to a member of the family, and the Home Secretary was asked to consider further measures.
The judgment also directed that, if parole were ever granted, safety measures be put in place for surviving relatives and prosecution witnesses. It criticized the police for failing to act while Chenthamara was on bail and threatening the family, and said they must be held accountable. The court commended the investigation team for finishing its work in 56 days.
As of the sentencing order of July 20, 2026, Chenthamara was in judicial custody in Kerala and was serving a life term in the first case, with the death sentence in the second awaiting the High Court's decision.
The first case was decided under the Indian Penal Code of 1860, and the second under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), which replaced it, with procedure now governed by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS). Murder is punished under Section 103 of the BNS. A Sessions Judge or Additional Sessions Judge may pass a sentence of death, but under Section 407 it cannot be carried out until the High Court confirms it. Section 393(3) requires the judgment to state special reasons for imposing death.
When it receives a reference, the High Court may order further inquiry or take additional evidence (Section 408). It may confirm the sentence, impose a different lawful sentence, overturn the conviction and convict of another offense or order a retrial, or acquit (Section 409). A death sentence confirmed by the High Court may be taken to the Supreme Court, and execution is postponed while the time to do so runs or an appeal is pending (Section 455). The convict may also petition the Governor and then the President for mercy under Section 472, within 30 days of being informed of the final outcome of the appeal or confirmation, and the Government may commute a death sentence to life imprisonment under Section 474.
The "rarest of rare" test comes from the Supreme Court's decision in Bachan Singh and later cases, which the trial court applied in both cases: in the 2019 case it held that the test was not met, and in the 2025 case that it was.
The death sentence is not final. Until the Kerala High Court rules on the confirmation reference, and any appeal by the convict is decided, the sentence cannot be carried out, and the High Court has the power to confirm, reduce or set it aside.
Chenthamara's counsel said after the 2019 verdict that he would approach the High Court, arguing that there was no eyewitness, that the circumstantial chain was incomplete and that the investigation had lapses.
In the 2025 case the defense argued that motive had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt and that the accused had acted under mental distress. The trial court convicted him and rejected the claim of mental distress for lack of evidence. The accused entered a plea of not guilty on all charges.
August 31, 2019: Sajitha, 35, dies in Nenmara. Crime No. 351/2019 is registered and Chenthamara is arrested.
2020: the case is registered as Sessions Case No. 17/2020.
May 24, 2022: released on bail, barred from the limits of Nenmara Police Station.
October 4, 2023: the bar is narrowed to Nenmara Grama Panchayat limits until the end of the trial.
Late 2024: he returns to Pothundi.
Second week of December 2024: residents ask the police to move him away.
December 29, 2024: a complaint is filed by the family; he receives a verbal warning.
January 27, 2025: Sudhakaran, 54, and Lakshmi, 75, die in Pothundi. Crime No. 64/2025 is registered; the Nenmara inspector is suspended.
January 29, 2025: Chenthamara is arrested; his bail in the first case is revoked.
June 10, 2025: the case is committed to the sessions court.
October 14, 2025: convicted in the 2019 case.
October 18, 2025: sentenced to double life imprisonment.
October 21, 2025: charges framed in the second case.
February 23, 2026: evidence begins.
July 6, 2026: the verdict is postponed.
July 13, 2026: convicted of two counts of murder and wrongful restraint.
July 15 and 16, 2026: hearings on sentence.
July 20, 2026: sentenced to death, subject to confirmation by the Kerala High Court.