The Supreme Court has in the course of a hearing observed that a new disturbing trend is emerging in Rajasthan where poisonous snakes are being used to murder people.

The apex court on Wednesday refused to grant bail to a murder accused in a case where a woman was killed after being bitten by a snake that was alleged to have been deliberately let loose for the purpose.

A bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli was hearing the bail plea of an accused who hails from Rajasthan. During the hearing, Justice Surya Kant said, "This is a new trend that people bring poisonous snakes from snake charmers and kill a person through snake bite. This is now becoming common in Rajasthan."

It has been alleged that accused Krishna Kumar had gone to the snake charmer with the main accused and had bought a snake for Rs 10,000.

Kumar’s counsel argued that his client did not know why his friend was buying snakes or poison. He was told that it was needed for medicinal purposes.

The lawyer argued that Kumar did not even go to the woman's house with the snake. He added that the accused is an engineering student and should be given bail for the sake of his future.

The incident had hit media headlines in 2019 when a woman was killed by her daughter-in-law who allegedly unleashed a snake to bite the victim. The incident took place in a village in the Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan. It has been alleged that the daughter-in-law, Alpana, had an extramarital affair with Manish, a resident of Jaipur.

Alpana was allegedly having an extramarital affair and decided to eliminate her mother-in-law as she came to know about it. She hatched a plot with her lover to unleash a snake to kill the mother-in-law as this would appear to be a natural cause.

Alpana's in-laws suspected foul play and lodged a police complaint. Investigations into the phone calls made by the accused helped the police to crack the case.