While trying to solve a case in which a husband allegedly murdered his wife using a cobra to bite her, the Kerala police was seen conducting an actual experiment with the snake to investigate the matter.
The victim has been identified as Uthra, a native of Kollam, Kerala died last year after being bitten by a viper followed by a bite from a cobra while she was recovering. The Kerala Police investigated this by probing a cobra to bite a dummy hand with a piece of meat attached to it.
A video of the same shows the snake moving in the corner of the room while the dummy is used to check what the snake does. Here is the video of the experiment:
The experiment has been conducted by the State Training Institute of the Forest Department, that submitted a report along with this video.
"The snake was made to bite on the meat and the depth of the wound was determined. The difference between a wound caused by a natural snakebite and the wound caused when the snake is made to bite the victim could be understood through this process," said an excerpt from the report. The findings of the report were submitted to a court earlier this month.
According to a report by Kerala Kaumudi, it was, in fact, provocation that led to the death of Uthra. She was bitten by a 150 cm long cobra snake and had two wounds that were 2.5 cm and 2.8 cm deep.
However, in the experiment conducted by the department, the wound caused by the snakebite in a natural situation was concluded to be 1.7 cm. It was only after being forced that the wound became deeper, and reached 2.4 cm, which is closer to Uthra's wound.
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