Kollam (Kerala), March 17 A Kerala court on Tuesday convicted a man accused of the sensational murder of Dr. Vandana Das in a taluk hospital in May 2023.
The accused was found guilty by the Kollam Additional District and Sessions Court over the brutal murder, public prosecutor Sicin G Mundakkal said.
The court convicted him for various offenses under the then IPC, including murder, destruction of evidence, and wrongful restraint.
It also found him guilty under the provisions of the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of violence and damage to property) Act 2012.
The sentence will be pronounced on March 19, Mundakkal added.
After the hearing, the victim's mother told reporters that the prosecution made strong arguments in the case.
She also said that she would comment further only after the sentence is pronounced on March 19.
Special public prosecutor (SPP) Prathap G Padickal told reporters that the accused, while in jail, read books related to psychiatry and was able to convince a medical board which interviewed him, and that he had some spectrum of schizophrenia.
However, during the trial, the prosecution was able to show that he did not suffer from any such mental issue, the SPP said.
"Therefore, the court rejected his defence of insanity," he added.
The accused, G Sandeep, was brought to the taluk hospital by the police for medical treatment during the small hours of May 10, 2023. He then went on a sudden attacking spree using a pair of surgical scissors kept in the room where his leg injury was being treated.
A school teacher by profession, he had initially attacked the police officers and a private person who had accompanied him to the hospital and then turned on the young Dr. Das who could not escape to safety.
She was stabbed several times and later succumbed to her injuries in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram where she was rushed following the attack.
Dr. Das was a native of the Kaduthuruthy area of Kottayam district and the only child of her parents. She was a house surgeon at Azeezia Medical College Hospital and was working at the Kottarakkara taluk hospital as part of her training.
Sandeep had called on the emergency number 112 claiming that his life was in danger. When local police located him, he was standing 10-15 metres away from his home, surrounded by local residents and his relatives, and had a wound on his leg following an alleged quarrel.
He was then taken to the hospital for dressing that wound.
