Days after the mysterious death of a 23-year-old Parassala native in Thiruvananthapuram, his girlfriend Greeshma has confessed to the police that she had mixed poison in the kashayam (Ayurvedic concoction) she gave him to drink. A resident of Ramavarmachirai in Kanyakumari district, the 22-year-old woman reportedly wanted to end her relationship with the victim, Sharon Raj, as her marriage had been fixed with another man, but Sharon was not ready for a breakup.
Speaking at a press meet on Sunday, October 30, ADGP (Law and Order) MR Ajith Kumar said that Greeshma has confessed to the crime. “She mixed pesticide which was there at her house. Greeshma had added pesticide to the kashayam with the intention of killing Sharon. She wanted to end the relationship,” he said, adding that the police have recovered a Kapiq pesticide bottle she is suspected to have used for the murder. The police also found that she had googled about poisoning before the incident.
Sharon had visited Greeshma’s house on October 14, where she offered him some kashayam claiming that she drinks it to relieve pain. Since the concoction was bitter, she also offered him some mango juice to wash it down. According to the statement by Sharon’s friend who accompanied him to her house, he had been vomiting throughout while returning home. On the same day, he approached the Parassala Government Hospital, from where he was referred to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital. However, as his blood tests were normal at the time, he was sent back home.
From the next day, Sharon began to suffer severe health issues, due to which he ended up consulting a few other hospitals. Finally, on October 17, he was once again taken to the Medical College Hospital. Since the results of his blood test showed major variations this time, he was immediately admitted to ICU, where the doctors found that his internal organs were damaged. A few days later, on October 25, Sharon died due to a cardiac arrest caused by organ failure.
Ever since Sharon’s death, his family has been alleging that this was a planned murder. His brother Shimon Raj, who is an Ayurveda practitioner, told the media that there was a possibility Sharon was being slow-poisoned for a while. “When we asked [Greeshma], she was reluctant to reveal the name of the kashayam she gave him. As we kept pressing, she sent us an image of a kashayam bottle downloaded from the internet. But the image she sent was of a general concoction, which has no side effects at all. When my father had a conversation with her, her statements were not matching,” Shimon said.
Speaking to TNM, Sharon’s father Jayaraj had also alleged a conspiracy by Greeshma’s family, whom he called superstitious. “Her horoscope apparently says that her first husband will die, and her family believes in all these superstitions. We have also learnt that they tied the knot secretly. So we suspect a conspiracy here. They might have killed him so that she could get a happy family life. She was engaged to a person who worked in the Army,” he said.
An aggrieved Jayaraj added that Sharon believed in her until his last breath. “In all his statements to the magistrate and the police, he repeated that he didn’t doubt anyone. He also held back the fact that he had consumed the kashayam she gave him until the last moment,” he said.
The ADGP, however, stated during the press meet that Greeshma had cooked up the story concerning her horoscope to try and get Sharon to break up with her. “As of now, we haven’t received any evidence to prove that she was slow-poisoning him. They were in a relationship. But ever since her marriage was fixed, she has been continuously trying to leave him,” he said, adding that more details will be available after further investigation.
In a WhatsApp chat between Sharon’s relatives and Greeshma, the latter had said that a doctor named Arun had prescribed her the kashayam. However, after many regional media outlets and the police contacted the doctor who currently works in Kozhikode, he refuted all of Greeshma’s claims and pointed out that he was transferred to Kozhikode one-and-a-half years ago. Dr Arun also denied Greeshma’s statement that he had consulted her at home, stating that he never consulted anybody at home.
Just a day ago, on Saturday, Thiruvananthapuram Rural District Police Chief Shilpa Dyavaiah had said in a press meet that the investigation in the case has been handed over to a Crime Branch special investigation team led by DySP Johnson. The move had followed allegations by Sharon’s family against the Parassala police. The victim’s relatives had alleged that the police did not even take their statements until days after the incident.