New hope on Abhaya Murder case

KOCHI: Catholic Nun Abhaya was murdered in mysterious circumstances in 1999 and her dead body was dumped in a well at the Catholic nunnery. Under pressure from the Church the state police and the CBI bungled the case and want to defer the murder as suicide. The pressure from the Church and the politicians were so intense, even the Chief of the Chemical Examiners Office was forced to alter the chemical examination report. Retired DYSP of the CBI who originally investigated the case reported that he was under extreme pressure from the Church and the government to misdirect the case and report the murder as suicide.

From 1999, state police and CBI has deliberately bungled the investigation, manipulated investigating officers, forced officials to alter the case diary and medical examination report to save the murderer connected to the Catholic Church. The CBI and the government ignored public outcry and refused to proceed the case or arrest the murderer. However, the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Ernakulam Mr.K.K. Uthaman directed CBI to continue investigation and arrest the culprit. Chief Judicial Magistrate rejected CBI request to defer the case as suicide. In 2003 and 2006 Chief Judicial magistrate Anthony Moreas and P.D. Sarangadharan have rejected CBI request again to close the murder case.

Under pressure from the public and ordered by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, CBI Director Vijaya Shankar  has taken a serious interest in the investigation and directed   CBI Deputy Director Alok Ranjan to take responsibility for the investigation. Now CBI DIG Ranjan, CBI Kochi Superintendent T.Vikram have met the Chief Judicial Magistrate P.D.Sarangadharan and informed him the willingness of CBI to proceed investigation of nun Abhaya murder case.

It is being reported that the murderer was send abroad by the Church immediately after dead body of nun Abhaya was found in a well at the Catholic nunnery. The murderer is shuttling between Kerala and the U.S.A without fear of apprehension. Meanwhile the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Trivandrum has ordered the arrest of the Chief Chemical Examiner and the Chemical Analyst who have altered the final report on nun Abhaya’s medical and chemical examination report. Both of them are absconding.

The bungling of Abhaya murder case and the investigation of several serious cases including Boforus Gun deal, Lavlin case, Jihadi terrorism, missionary misdeeds and coercive religious conversion, and counterfeit currency distribution indicates severe flaws in the operation of CBI and state police. The official public institution functioning alongside the government and civil administration are a product of inefficiency, political opportunity, nepotism and cronyism.

Police investigation in India means serving the powerful Church, Jihadi groups and corrupt politicians. CBI and state police investigations are to produce severe cognitive dissonance. Take for example CBI inquiry on Boforus case, nun Abhaya case, Lavlin corruption case, and several Jihadi terrorism cases, CBI inquiry towards these cases show how easy it is for justice to take a back seat to processes, for reality to give way to illusions, and for justice to political interests.

The difficulties in Abhaya murder case can be blamed for pressure from the Church, political pressure, police inaction, hopeless strategy and inefficient tactics of the CBI. Lakhs of rupees have been wasted on the case and the public is tired of the twists and turns of the case. So the public is left to wonder the CBI’s inaction and misdirection. The case is increasingly convulsed by pressure from the Church, yet many people think that the culprit can be arrested and prosecuted.

The Church has grown powerful politically by advancing an uncompromising hostility to CBI inquiry. Sabotaging police inquiry has become an institution in Kerala. Yet the dynamics unfolding of nun Abhaya murder case is gobbling up the decaying corpse of phony secularism and police corruption

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