Attingal twin murder case: Supreme Court grants bail to convict Anu Shanthi

The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Anu Shanthi, one of the two convicts in the 2014 twin murder case in Kerala's Attingal [Anu Shanthi vs State of Kerala]..A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and AS Oka passed the order granting bail to Shanthi who was found guilty by a Sessions Court in Kerala of having conspired with one Nino Mathew, with whom she was having an affair, to kill her husband, mother-in-law and 2-year-old daughter. "Leave granted. On hearing learned counsel for the parties, looking to the medical records of the appellant, the fact that the appeal is still pending and the appellant having already been in custody for about 7½ years, we grant bail to the appellant on term and conditions to the satisfaction of the trial Court. The criminal appeal stands disposed of.".The Court passed the order after hearing counsel for the appellant, advocate VK Biju, who pointed out that Shanthi had been incarcerated for over seven years now with her appeal against her conviction still pending. .The two accused in the case, Nino Mathew and Anu Shanthi, were found guilty of murder by the Thiruvananthapuram Principal Sessions Court in 2016, two years after the incident. Mathew was given a death sentence while Shanthi was sentenced to life imprisonment. Mathew, a software engineer in Technopark, had allegedly gone to Shanthi's house and introduced himself as Shanthi's husband Lijeesh's friend. On entering the home, he stabbed the latter's mother and son to death. Lijeesh was also attacked, but escaped the attempt on his life with injuries and was able to alert the neighbours. Within 24 hours of the incident, the State police arrested Nino, who confessed to the crime. They later arrested Shanthi as well, after an extra-marital affair between her and Mathew accused came to light. The duo were charged for murder, criminal conspiracy, attempt to destroy evidence and theft. The Sessions judge had found Shanthi guilty, since she was aware of Mathew’s plans, according to a report in The News Minute.The charge of transmitting obscene material in electronic form was also added, after the police found some explicit videos of the two in Mathew's digital devices..The present plea before the Supreme Court was moved by Shanthi challenging a Kerala High Court order from earlier this year that refused to grant bail and instead, called for a fresh medical report. .The plea stated that Shanthi has been undergoing treatment for her blindness in one eye since 2014, was slowly losing vision in the other eye as well, and needed further treatment for the same. "It is an admitted fact that name of the Petitioner is not there in the FIS or in the FIR, as she has been falsely implicated in the alleged offences especially in 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) of the (Indian Penal Code) IPC," the plea said.The plea added that Shanthi's character inside jail, as certified by its superintendent and her probation officer, has been good. This, coupled with her medical records, make it a fit case for bail, it was contended. Pertinently, the plea argued that Shanthi was not given a chance to explain her version of the incident. "It is an admitted fact that the petitioner was silenced by the police and did not give a chance to explain her version when she was under the police custody without any evidence which is clear violation of the provisions of Cr.P.C ... The trial Court finding that Petitioner send SMS that FINISH OFF is absolutely wrong and there is no such SMS and evidence also on the entire records (sic)," the plea stated.It further contended that the High Court in denying bail had ignored that the parole applications moved by Shanthi in December 2021 and February 2022 had been allowed by a bench headed by Justice Kaul..Advocates Ria Sachthey, Chetanya Singh, and Ranjeet Bharti also represented the accused. Advocates Harshad V Hameed, Dileep Poolakkot, and Ashly Harshad represented the respondents. [Read order]