Meerut Court Sentences Woman and Lover to Death in Snake-Staged Murder Case

A court in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, sentenced Ravita Kashyap and her lover Amardeep to death on Friday, October 16, for the murder of her husband, Amit Kashyap. The two killed Amit in April 2025 and placed a live snake beside his body to make the murder look like a fatal snakebite.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Jaiveer Singh Nagar pronounced the sentence. The court had convicted both of murder and criminal conspiracy on October 7. Ravita and Amardeep, who have spent 17 months in jail, joined the hearing by video link. Amit's family welcomed the sentence.

A death staged as a snakebite

Amit Kashyap, also known as Mikky, lived in Akbarpur Sadat village, in the area of the Bahsuma police station in Meerut district. He was found dead on a cot at home on the morning of April 13, 2025. A live snake lay trapped beneath his body, and marks on his skin looked like snakebites. His family first believed a snake had killed him in his sleep.

The story broke down at the postmortem. Doctors found no snake venom in his body. They found that he had died of asphyxia, with pressure applied to his neck, mouth and nose, and fractures to the hyoid bone and the thyroid cartilage. The medical findings pointed to strangulation, not a bite. Ravita had objected when the family pressed for a postmortem, and her conduct deepened suspicion, investigators said.

The evidence the court heard

The prosecution said the pair strangled Amit after he learned of their relationship, then planted the snake to stage an accident. A snake charmer told the court that Amardeep had bought a snake from him for Rs 1,000, PTI reported. Call records showed Ravita and Amardeep spoke 51 times in the 24 hours around the killing, IANS reported.

The court heard testimony from 12 witnesses. Amit's mother and brother were among the key witnesses for the prosecution. District Government Counsel Krishna Kumar Chaubey argued the case for the state and said the family had its faith in the court answered. He described the killing of a spouse as a heinous crime and said the verdict sent a strong message.

The second Meerut verdict in three days

Friday's sentence was the second death verdict in a Meerut husband murder case in three days. On Wednesday, October 14, another court in the city sentenced Muskan Rastogi and her lover Sahil Shukla to death for killing her husband Saurabh Rajput in 2025 and sealing his dismembered body in a cement filled blue drum, ANI reported. That case drew national attention for months. The snake case ran quieter, but it ended the same way, with two death sentences from a Meerut courtroom in one week.

Both cases date to the spring of 2025. Both turned on physical evidence that contradicted the scene the killers had arranged. In the snake case, a postmortem report did the work. It took one examination to show that the snake beside Amit Kashyap's body was a prop, and 17 months of investigation and trial to bring the case to Friday's sentence.