Post-Mortem Found No Venom: The Meerut Snakebite Murder Verdict
A Meerut court on Friday sentenced Ravita and her lover Amardeep to death for murdering her husband, Amit Kashyap, and trying to pass the killing off as a snakebite. It is the second death sentence in a high-profile Meerut murder case this week.
The verdict
The court had convicted both on October 7. The sentencing hearing lasted around half an hour, and the lawyer for Amit’s family, Balraj Singh, also argued for the death penalty. The trial ran for 551 days with 87 hearings, and more than 12 prosecution witnesses testified.
What the prosecution said
According to the prosecution, Ravita and Amardeep strangled Amit at the couple’s home in Akbarpur Sadat village, in the Bahsuma area of Meerut, on the night of April 12, 2025. They then placed a snake under his body to make it look as if he had died in his sleep.
His body was found on his bed the next morning with a snake trapped beneath his waist, and around 10 bite marks were reportedly seen on it. His family first assumed it was a snakebite. But when they wanted a post-mortem done, Ravita objected and reacted aggressively. The report later showed there was no snake venom in his body and that he had died of suffocation.
The evidence that raised suspicion
Investigators found that Amardeep, who worked as a mason with Amit and was a friend of his, had been on the phone with Ravita 51 times within 24 hours of the murder. Police said Amit had suspected the relationship and had repeatedly threatened his wife. Just a day before his death, Ravita had returned with her husband and children from a temple visit in Saharanpur, which investigators say points to the plan having been made in advance.
Amit’s brother, Monu Kashyap, filed a complaint at the Bahsuma police station on April 16, 2025, and a chargesheet was filed within 60 days of the murder.
Four death sentences in three days
The verdict follows the death sentence handed down on October 14 to Muskan Rastogi and Sahil Shukla in the Saurabh Rajput “blue drum” murder case. With this, four people have been sentenced to death by Meerut courts in three days. Under Indian law, a death sentence must be confirmed by the High Court before it can be carried out.
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