Indian man gets life sentence for wife's gruesome murder
Houston (PTI): An Indian man was sentenced to life imprisonment in the US state of Florida for the gruesome murder of his wife in 2020 in the parking lot of a hospital where she was working as a nurse, according to a media report.
Philip Mathew on Friday pleaded no contest to the first-degree murder of Merin Joy, his wife who was planning an escape from an abusive relationship, The Sun Sentinel newspaper reported.
The plea deal spared him from the possibility of a death sentence, the report said.
In 2020, Joy, 26, then a nurse at Broward Health Coral Springs, was stabbed 17 times. Police said Mathew blocked her car in with his, slashed her repeatedly, and then drove over her body on the ground before driving off, police said.
One of her co-workers would later say Mathew drove over her "like she was a speed bump," and as employees rushed to her aid, Joy could only cry to them over and over: "I have a baby."
Before she died, police said, she revealed her attacker's identity.
On Friday, Mathew also pleaded no contest to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He was immediately sentenced to life in state prison with no possibility of release, plus a maximum of five years for the aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The decision was made to waive the death penalty because of the certainty of the life sentence and because the defendant was giving up his right to appeal, said Paula McMahon, spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office.
Joy's family remains devastated by their profound loss.
Joby Philip, a cousin on Joy's side of the family, watched Friday's hearing on Zoom from where he lives in Tampa, then translated the outcome to her family.
Joy's mother is "glad to know her daughter's killer would remain the rest of his years in jail and she's relieved to know the legal process is over," he said Friday.
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TN CM accuses BJP-led Centre of 'secretively' working on delimitation
Ranipet (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday accused the BJP-led Centre of "secretively" working towards delimitation and alleged that there was a conspiracy behind the move.
While there were several issues affecting the people, such as LPG shortage, amid elections in states, in order to divert people, the BJP-led Centre is desperate to implement delimitation right now, he said.
According to him, the proposal involving key constitutional amendments would be transformative in nature and is set to change Indian politics.
"However, how are they going to do it? What kind of amendments? The union government does not provide an explanation on how it proposed to do it. Also, it has not responded to any of the questions," he said.
Addressing a poll rally here, he alleged, "As they secretively work on this matter, it is clear that there is a conspiracy to it."
Now they are claiming "deceptively" that for Tamil Nadu, there shall be an increase in constituencies.
"A big danger is hiding in that claim," he said.
Citing an example of a sweet dish in which several ingredients are concealed, he said, "the danger is hidden inside the delimitation."
"Right now, TN has 39 LS seats and UP has 80, which is 41 more. If delimitation is introduced, the difference will become 61."
Hence, the gap in seats between southern and northern states will rise and through this, the BJP-led centre is trying to "muffle our voice" in the Parliament, he added.
The CM further alleged: "This is a move that would impact the whole of India. However, they are trying to implement this without holding any consultations with state governments or opposition parties."
Moreover, this was the season of elections and when ordinary people themselves face restrictions, why does the Centre not have any such restriction? he asked.
"Why this hurry?" he questioned and wondered why the initiative could not be considered after April 29, following completion of polls.
Stalin quoted Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's article in an English daily on this issue and said he concurred with her.
Sonia Gandhi has said Tamil Nadu must not be affected --the line of the DMK-- and has opposed BJP.
He said if late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa had been alive, she would have taken a tough stance, like the DMK, on issues that compromised the state's rights.
Jayalalithaa strongly opposed GST and NEET.
Following her demise, Palaniswami has made the AIADMK "dummy" and that party could not oppose the BJP on such an important issue that would affect Tamil Nadu, he claimed.
He claimed that the Centre mandated "Hindi learning" if Rs 2,000 cr education fund was to be released.
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