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Kerala court rejects CBI's report on nun's murder

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Ernakulam chief judicial magistrate Antony Moraes' rejection of the Central Bureau of Investigation's report seeking closure of the Sister Abhaya murder case as 'untraced' spells trouble for several senior police officers and an Indian Administrative Services officer in Kerala.

The CBI has the unenviable task of questioning its own senior officer V Tyagarajan. He, as superintendent of police in 1993, had allegedly brought pressure on the CBI investigating team to close the case as suicide. Then deputy superintendent of police Varghese P Thomas, who headed the first CBI team, had resigned in protest.

The CJM said it was necessary for the investigating officer to find out why Tyagarajan had tried to close the case. "Tyagarajan should have been questioned to find out why he wanted to close the case", the judge said.

The CJM also trained his guns on those responsible for the destruction of evidence seized from the site of the crime. The court said those responsible should be identified.

The CBI investigating team had cited lack of evidence as the reason for not establishing the identity of the culprits involved. The 21-year-old Sr Abhaya, was a member of the Kottayam Pius X convent and a second-year pre-degree student of BCM College, was found dead on March 27, 1992. The body was recovered from a well in the convent compound.

The Sister Abhaya Case Action Council, which has been pursuing the case accused K T Maichel of Kerala Crime Branch CID and IAS officer S G K Kishore of destruction of evidence before the CBI could conclude its investigation. Maichel, as deputy superintendent of police, had recommended the destruction and Kishore, as revenue divisional officer, approved it.

The council had demanded the prosecution of the two for tampering with evidence. Its plea is still pending with the Kerala government.

When Maichel stated that the nun was suffering from mental illness and had committed suicide, the girl's parents and the council slapped a defamation case against him.

This is the second time that the CJM has rejected the CBI plea to close the case. The CBI's earlier plea in 1996 was rejected by the CJM, who directed the investigating agency to conduct a fresh impartial investigation.

Accordingly, a team led by Surendar Pal conducted a fresh investigation. Though the CBI concluded that it was clear case of homicide, it admitted its failure to trace the culprits for want of evidence.

But the CJM, after poring through the case dairy running into several volumes, said he was not satisfied with the investigation.

The CJM questioned the CBI's sole dependence on the polygraph test to establish the details of the culprits. The judge said the polygraph test was not dependable as experts were of the opinion that a 10-year-old boy can beat it with 10 minutes training. The court felt that the CBI could have identified the culprits by using scientific methods, including Brian Finger Printing. "If the investigating officer had used diverse methods and questioned witnesses properly, it would have succeeded", the judge added.

The main suspects in the case are Catholic priests Father Jose Putrukayal and Thomas Kattoor, Sanju P Mahtew and Sister Sefa.

The two priests, who are now abroad, were subjected to polygraph tests, which did not reveal anything adverse.

The action council, which believes that the death has something to do with illegal affairs going on in the hostel, has alleged that pressure was brought on the investigating agencies not to expose the culprits. Council convenor Jomon Puthanpurackal says that it is because some higher ups in the church are involved in the case.

He said the local police showed undue haste to bury the case. According to him, the police had prepared an inquest report even before the body was taken out from the well. The record shows that the inquest report was prepared at 8.30 am while the body was taken out by the fire brigade at 10.30 am.

The council feels that the nun was done to death after she noticed some undesirable act in the convent on the fatal day.

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