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Offender Databases Laxman Rajamani

Laxman Rajamani

Alias

.

Offences

Murder of his wife in Auckland in January 2005

Victims

Chitralekha Ramakrishnan

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1970

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to life imprisonment with a 12 year minimum term in March 2006
Eligible for parole from January 2017

Background
NZ Herald story here and more here
In December 2006 Rajamani was tried again, found guilty, and sentenced to life with a minimum non-parole period of 12 years.
Court of Appeal decisions here, here, and here.

From the Dominion Post April 2006
The mother of an Indian woman murdered in Auckland last year says that justice through the New Zealand court system has not made the loss any easier to bear. Chitralekha Ramakrishnan, 32, had her throat slit by her husband Laxman Rajamani, 36, on January 13 last year. Rajamani, a former resident of Chembur, working as an accounts manager at American Express in Auckland, was jailed for life, with a non parole period of 12 years, by the High Court at Auckland last month.

P V Ramakrishnan, 71, Chitralekha's father, told Mumbai newspaper, Mid-Day: "I have no enmity against Rajamani, nor do I have any feelings of revenge against him. The law has taken its course." But his wife, Sharda Ramakrishnan, 65, said: "We were unable to understand Rajamani's behaviour, as we chose him. "It hurts more when we think about how he tortured her for one whole year. After Chitralekha's murder, I see her everywhere in the house," she told the English-language newspaper. "I can't forget her".

"Rajamani often apologised after hitting Chitralekha. Just a day before he killed her, he called me and said that he had quit all his vices – liquor and drugs. And the next day he killed her in cold blood." Chitralekha's sister Uttara, an insurance worker, said: "Rajamani had kept her body in the house for two days and tried to erase proofs. Her face was decomposed beyond recognition, when I reached Auckland to collect her body. I spent $NZ5000 for making her look good even in death."

She said the family only had one photograph of Chitralekha because all their photo albums were swept away in floods in July last year. In a video statement to the police, Rajamani admitted to the murder but said he was provoked: his wife was planning to move out and live with a man from Pakistan. "The problem was she was giving her body, smile, touch to a man from an enemy country, I thought she was a national traitor," he told the High Court.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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