A court in Kerala's Palakkad district sentenced a 61-year-old man to death on Monday for the 2025 Nenmara double murder case that shook the region. Additional Sessions Judge Kenneth George handed down the death penalty to Chenthamara for killing his neighbour Sudhakaran and Sudhakaran's mother Lakshmi, along with a fine of Rs 20 lakh.
The killings near Nenmara
The double murder took place on January 27, 2025, at Pothundy near Nenmara, where Chenthamara attacked and killed his neighbour Sudhakaran and Sudhakaran's mother Lakshmi. The court convicted him under Section 103(1) (murder) and Section 126(2) (wrongful restraint) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. While pronouncing the sentence, the judge placed the case in the rarest of rare category, observing that the convict had brutally wiped out multiple members of a single family.
A second murder for the same man
This was not Chenthamara's first killing. He had been arrested back in 2019 for murdering Sudhakaran's wife Sajitha, whom he held responsible for troubles in his own married life. That case had already earned him two separate life sentences from the court.
Killed again soon after getting bail
Chenthamara secured bail in the Sajitha murder case in January 2025. Barely any time had passed before he turned on Sudhakaran and his mother Lakshmi and killed them both. Once news of the second double murder broke, police launched a massive manhunt and tracked him down quickly. He had remained lodged in the Malampuzha sub-jail ever since, awaiting trial.
81 witnesses, 28 pieces of evidence
During the trial, the prosecution built a strong case against Chenthamara. A total of 81 witnesses were examined and 28 pieces of physical evidence were produced before the court. It was this weight of testimony and evidence that led the judge to convict him and ultimately hand down the death sentence.
A case that shook the region
The case had drawn wide attention in Kerala, given that three members of the same family were killed by one man within a few years. The verdict is being seen as a significant step toward justice in an especially grave case.
