Why Church diswons the Nun who was Raped and Murdered inside the Convent?

Pioneer News Service | Kochi

The Kerala High Court on Thursday severely criticised the Kochi unit of the CBI for not taking up the investigation of the sensational Sr Abhaya murder case despite the fact that the court had ordered this 50 days ago. The court asked the investigating Kochi unit of the agency to take over the investigation from the Delhi unit which had been dealing with the case so far.

Justice V Ramkumar, who was handling the case till Wednesday, had on September 4 ordered the CBI to hand over the case to the Kochi unit. The CBI had told the court that it wanted to go for an appeal in the Supreme Court but it had till now failed to do so. Justice Ramkumar, who had stirred up some controversy by ordering a probe against Sr Abhaya Action Council convener Jomon Puthenpurakkal, had withdrawn from hearing the case on Wednesday.

Justice R Basant, who was now hearing the case, reminded the premier investigating agency that it was duty-bound to obey the orders of the High Court and all other courts. It also criticised the CBI for delaying the handover of the case on the pretext that it wanted to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the order of Justice Ramkumar.

The court said that there was no justification for causing delay in the investigation of the case, even when it had got convincing evidences to continue the probe, in the name of an appeal it had so far failed to file in the apex court. The High Court pointed out that it was highly improper on the part of the CBI not to file the appeal even though it had got 50 days to do so.

According to information available, the CBI, which saw Justice Ramkumar’s order as a big humiliation, wanted to go for an appeal sincerely but it had failed to do this as the legal department and the administrative section could not reach a decision on this. CBI sources said the agency even now wanted to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.

Justice Basant asked the Kochi unit of the CBI to take over the investigation within ten days. He also directed Dy SP RK Aggarwal of the CBI’s Delhi unit, who was presently the officer in charge of the probe, to hand over all the files and reports of the investigation so far to the Kochi unit before November 3.

Aggarwal was directed to inform the court after this. He was also asked to inform the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ernakulam after handing over the case. Justice Basant told Aggarwal that he should personally appear in the court on November 3 if he could not carry out this before that date.

The CBI had now to carry out the continued investigation into the case with the evidences or indications it had got after the narco-analysis performed on two priests and a nun in relation with the murder of Sr Abhaya. The CBI had subjected priests Fr Jose Puthrukayiland Fr Thomas M Kottor and nun Sr Steffi to narco-analysis at the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Bangalore. The tests themselves had become a subject of controversy after contradictory deposition had come from the CBI and the lab over the CDS with recordings of the procedure.

The decisive twists in the investigation procedure had come after the High Court continuously criticised the CBI for the half-hearted manner in which it was handling the case. The agency had specifically stated that they had got solid evidences in the case but prayed for more time to complete the probe. At the same it, it dubiously changed the officers in charge of the probe which was followed by the confusion over the authenticity of the CDs.

Sister Abhaya was found murdered in the well of the St Pius X Convent, Kottayam where she was a nun, on March 27,1992, in the wee hours of the day.

There were no convincing explanations from any quarter on the mysterious death of the nun. The earlier impression, based on the statements by the other nuns at the convent, was that she could have committed suicide due to some mental disorder.