The judge in his order also passed severe strictures on the Vellarada police that concluded her death as a suicide. The case was established after a re-investigation by the Crime Branch following a petition by the brother of the deceased to the chief minister one-and-a-half years after the murder.

The judge noted in his order that this was a rarest of rare case considering that the murder was well-planned and did not spare a thought to his three-month-old child.

The prosecution stated that on December 3, 1990 Chandraraj forced Shyamalakumari drink coffee mixed with cyanide after she refused to sell her share of land and give him the money. She had also been questioning about his illicit affairs, theprosecution added.

Shyamalakumari, who was an orphan, was married to Chandraraj in 1989 with Rs 5,000, 65 per cent of ancestral land and an HMT watch as dowry.

Earlier, the accused, who had subsequently remarried, pleaded mercy of the court claiming that he had two children, aged five and two by the present wife.

Following the pronouncement of the verdict, he was shifted to the Central Jail.