Quantum of sentence of Chenthamara in Sajitha murder case to be pronounced on Saturday, prosecution seeks death penalty 

PALAKKAD: The quantum of sentence of Chenthamara, found guilty in the Sajitha murder case in Nenmara, will be pronounced on Saturday. The prosecution demanded that the accused should not be granted parole and that he be sentenced to death. The prosecution informed the court that Chenthamara had killed two more people while out on bail in the Sajitha murder case. However, the defense lawyer argued that the double murder should not be confused with this case.

Chenthamara alias Chenthamarakshan entered his neighbor Sajitha’s house in Boyans Colony at Pothundi in Nenmara and hacked her to death on August 31st in 2019. Chenthamara was very superstitious. An astrologer had told him that a woman with long hair was behind his wife’s estrangement from him. So, he suspected Sajitha and hacked her to death. Circumstantial evidence and the statements of fifty witnesses, including his wife’s, turned crucial in the case.

He murdered her when she was alone at home. On the day of the murder, her daughters were in school and Sudhakaran, her husband, a lorry driver, was in Tamil Nadu. When Sajitha was in the kitchen, Chenthamara came with a sword and hacked her brutally leading to her death. After confirming her death, he left the blood-stained sword at home and went hiding in the Nelliyampathy hills. The police arrested him when he came out from his hiding place after feeling hungry.

There were 68 witnesses in the case. Of these, 44 including Chenthamara’s wife, brother and daughter of dead Sajitha, were examined as witnesses. Chenthamara's footprints stained with blood found inside Sajitha's house were crucial in the case. Also, his wife’s statement that the clothes that fell on the ground from the pocket of the victim in the struggle were Chenthamara's, also implicated him.

The charge sheet was filed in 2020. The examination of witnesses began on August 4, 2025. Public Prosecutor M J Vijayakumar appeared for the prosecution. Chenthamara, who was on remand, hacked Sajitha's husband Sudhakaran (55) and mother Lakshmi (75) to death on January 27, 2025, after being released on bail.