The secret diary of lovers accused of murdering her husband

Publish date: 2024-05-17

Sofia Sam, pictured with her son and husband, is accused of murdering her husband Sam Abraham. Photo / news.com.au

Secret diary entries handwritten in three languages by Sofia Sam and her lover accused of murdering her husband with cyanide have been tendered at trial.

The trial of Ms Sam, 33, and Arun Kamalasanan, 35, the alleged lover murderers of Ms Sam's husband Sam Abraham has opened in the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne, Australia.

Both have pleaded not guilty to one count of murdering Mr Abraham in October 2015, news.com.au reports.

Excerpts of a journal, handwritten by both accused in English, Hindi and Malay, detail a secret passionate affair allegedly two years before the fatal poisoning of Sam Abraham.

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Called the "Upward" diary because the cheap $3 journal had that written on its front page, the pages reveal the pair's clandestine relationship, prosecutors alleged in court.

In one entry Mr Kamalasanan wrote: "I am sure that one day she will be mine, this life or next."

Other diary entries, Victorian Crown prosecutor Kerri Judd QC told the court, had been found by police at Mr Kamalasanan's home on a Seagate 500GB hard drive.

Both accused and the murder victim had all moved to live in Melbourne from the southern Indian state of Kerala.

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The court heard that Sofia Sam had married in 2008 in Kerala and had a son with Mr Abraham.

An agreed statement of facts said that while Mr Abraham was working in Dubai, his wife moved to Australia with their son, then aged 3, in 2012.

In May 2013, then 31-year-old Mr Abraham joined his 29-year-old wife and their son in Melbourne.

The family lived in a three-bedroom property in the northern Melbourne suburb of Epping.

Mr Kamalasanan, then also aged 31, moved to Melbourne on a student visa in July 2013, his wife and son remaining in India.

In January, 2013, Ms Sam was in possession of the Upward diary and began making entries in three languages.

On January 28 she wrote the reason she needed the diary was "a secret. I'll tell you later, okay".

The following day she wrote: "We never know why we like someone more than others." The day after, she wrote: "I feel to hug you and comfort you."

On February 2, the Crown says Ms Sam wrote: "I'm waiting for you."

Six days later in either Hindi or Malay, she allegedly wrote: "I wish to sleep in your arms ... I want to be yours but you are not mine."

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On February 17, she wrote, "Miss you a lot dear. Can you hold me tight" and "Hug me tight, hold me rude. I am here for you."

On March 8, the diary entry says: "Why I am made with rock heart? Why I am so cruel? Why I am so cunning?

"I — you make me do bad things. Why you made me bad."

On April 12 the diary entry was: "I feel proud to be yours. I just think, if you are with me, I can reach heights."

In late April, the Crown says the entries suggest Ms Sam has been called "stubborn".

"Am I doing wrong? They say I am wrong. They say I am bad ... They say I don't know anything."

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The court heard that electronic diary entries on Mr Kamalasanan's computer hard drive record him flying to Australia on July 7, 2013, and two days later saying: "Met my love for first time in Melbourne after seven months."

On July 10, the Crown says that Ms Sam wrote in the Upward diary: "I feel like running and coming close to you, but my heart is helpless."

And on July 18, she allegedly wrote, "planning is always needed in what we do" and then "an idea without a plan is no more than a dream".

The court heard that the second set of words had been circled.

Almost two weeks later, an entry was made in the Upward diary in different handwriting.

The entry said: "It may take thousands of books to describe how much I love my love, my eternal love.

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"It took a long time to gather the strength to let her know about my love and how much I love."

A subsequent entry said: "I just need to love you til my last breath ... I wish to live a life with you and at the end of that life I will wish one more life with you."

On September 10, 2013, the Crown says Mr Kamalasanan entered in the Upward diary, "She's the best match for me in always.

"That is proved in all my days, but what to do?.

"I will wait for her. I am afraid that how many more days I need to live in pain without her."

At 9.14am on October 14, 2015, emergency services received a call saying that a man at Epping had passed out and was foaming at the mouth.

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Paramedics arrived at 9.27am and applied CPR, but failed to revive him.

Mr Abraham was declared deceased and Dr Michael Burke performed an autopsy on him at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, in Southbank, Melbourne.

Dr Burke determined Mr Abraham had died from cyanide poisoning.

The trial of Sofia Sam and Arun Kamalasanan continues.

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