Abhaya case report was tampered with

The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court here has been convinced that the result report of the chemical analysis of Sr Abhaya in the sensational Abhaya murder case has been tampered with. The court on Wednesday came to this conclusion after scrutinising the original records of the report.

The police had on Tuesday seized the reports of the chemical tests from chief chemical examiner R Geetha following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Abhaya Action Council convenor Jomon Puthenpurakal. The Magistrate found the reports tampered when it was produced in the court on Wednesday.

Joemon filed the case in which chief chemical examiner Geetha is the first accused. The court ordered to seize the reports on Tuesday itself as it was believed that there were chances of destroying the original register. The report written positive was found scratched and written negative.

The court has found that the result report that had found evidences of rape on Sr Abhaya’s body was tampered with. Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that his department did not intend to institute any special investigation in the context of the new twist to the case with the court’s finding.

The police had seized the chemical analysis and toxicological reports after the dramatic scenes on Tuesday. When the police team reached the office of the chief chemical examiner (CCE) at about 3 pm as per the court’s orders, CCE Geetha was out of office. Tired of a long wait, the police asked the joint chemical examiner to open the CCE’s room. Later, Geetha came back after a telephonic conversation with the police. It was after detailed questioning of Geetha that the police could get the records.

Reports had recently come out that Sr Abhaya had been raped before she was murdered and that the records relating to this had been tampered with. Jomon Puthenpurakal, who has led a long legal war in the issue, had filed the PIL following these reports.

The sensational case relating to the murder of Sr Abhaya, a nun at the St Pius X Convent in Kottayam, came into light on March 27, 1992 after her body was found in the well of the convent. The local police who first probed the death concluded that Sr Abhaya had committed suicide. After this the Crime Branch of Kerala Police and the CBI investigated the case. The CBI, which found that the nun was murdered, however, concluded the probe citing lack of evidences. But the Kerala High Court ordered reinvestigation of the case.

The new revelations, based on the report of the chemical examination, establish that Sr Abhaya had been raped before she was murdered. The result sheets of the three distinctive and special tests carried out on the body parts of the nun had first been marked positive. But the reports were later manipulated, and the marking ‘positive’ was erased using whitener and was marked negative over that.

The first report had confirmed the presence of semen in the private parts of the nun’s body. However, the remark “detected” was later manipulated into “not detected” by adding the new word. But the manipulation came out as the correction was made with a differently coloured ink.

The laboratory report had cited remarks towards the end to establish that there was nothing mysterious about Sr Abhaya’s death.