A trial court in Kerala on Monday found a former government employee guilty of dowry harassment and domestic violence that led to his wife taking her own life in a case that had rocked the state and put the spotlight back on the social evil.

Kollam additional sessions judge Sujith K.N. found Kiran Kumar guilty of the main charges he was slapped with following the death of 22-year-old Vismaya N. Nair who was found hanging in his house in June 2021, just over a year after they got married.

The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on Tuesday.

Kumar, who was then employed as an assistant inspector in the motor vehicles department of the state government, was sacked after his arrest in August 2021 following a massive outcry against his continuance in the office after being accused of such a heinous crime.

Public prosecutor G. Mohanraj told reporters that the conviction was based on the charges under IPC sections 304B (dowry death), 306 (abetment of suicide) and 498A (harassment of a women by husband or relative). “This is not a judgment against an individual, but a verdict against a social evil like dowry. The prosecution is seeking maximum punishment,” said Mohanraj.

A teary-eyed Thrivikraman Nair, Vismaya’s father, said: “My daughter got justice.”

Kumar was taken into custody soon after the verdict that cancelled his bail granted by the Supreme Court in March.

The public prosecutor said the court had not said anything about IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

“I feel the accused was not found guilty of these two charges. But we will have to wait for the order copy,” he said.

Vismaya, who had completed her bachelor’s degree in Ayurveda, was found hanging from the grill of a bathroom ventilator at her husband’s home in Kollam in June last year. The investigation quickly shifted focus on dowry harassment and the police arrested Kumar.

Subsequent investigation revealed that Vismaya’s parents had given her around 800 grams of gold jewellery and gifted the groom more than an acre of land and a Toyota car worth over Rs10 lakh. But Kumar wanted his father-in-law to sell the car and give him Rs10 lakh to buy a better car.

Vismaya had narrated her ordeal, including physical assault at the hands of Kumar, to her brother Vijith Nair in a series of WhatsApp messages a day before she was found dead. A team headed by inspector-general of police Harshitha Attaluri completed the investigation and filed a 507-page charge sheet.

During the course of the trial, the court examined 42 witnesses and 108 documents. Several transcripts of phone call recordings between the couple and pictures that Vismaya shared with her friends revealing bruises on her body were also submitted before the court.

Attaluri credited the conviction to her team and the prosecutor for presenting the evidence in a very systematic and scientific manner. “I feel the statements of independent witnesses proved crucial in the case. We also managed to get a lot of electronic evidence that could be used as corroborative evidence. So a combination of these proved to be strong evidence leading to the conviction,” the officer told reporters.

“This judgment is a vindication of the efforts taken by the police. This kind of a strong judgment will have a deterrence in the society,” she said. “The girl had faced extreme harassment, which started even before the wedding and continued until she was forced to take her own life.”