According to the Thiruvananthapuram CBI court’s ruling, Abhaya, 21, was struck with an axe on the back and center of her skull.
Doctors who looked at the issue determined that Sister Abhaya’s head injuries were “sufficient to induce death.”
The decision says, “Given the severity of Sister Abhaya’s head injuries, it is sufficient to cause death… the only conclusion conceivable here is that Sister Abhaya was assaulted by the accused to murder her.”
Furthermore, the investigation has shown that the accused dumped the nun’s corpse in a well to obliterate the evidence and blame her injuries on the fall.
The CBI court said, “The prosecution’s allegation that the accused, in furtherance of their shared purpose of causing the evidence to vanish, threw Sister Abhaya down the well to make it seem that the aforementioned injuries were suffered during the fall, must be inferred.”
However, the most intriguing aspect of the judgement is that it specifically mentions the murder’s location: a convent.
The location of the murder, according to the court, is very important.
“It’s a convent, a place where men are categorically prohibited from entering. A nun, a Bride of Christ, has been murdered “, according to the court.
This stated that Father Thomas Kottoor’s presence in the monastery at the time of the murder indicated “nefarious behaviour.”
The following evidence was used by the court to convict Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy of murder:
1. Convent inmates testified that Sister Abhaya lived a happy life and would not have committed suicide.
2. The accused fathers paid frequent visits to the convent. The convent’s chef said that dogs guarded the entrance, and the absence of barking on the day of the murder suggested that the burglars were frequent visitors.
3. The night before the murder, a single eyewitness observed two men entering the monastery, one of whom he recognised as Father Kottoor. The testimony of ‘Adakka’ Raju, a minor thief who had entered the convent on the day of the crime to steal something, was essential in ensuring that justice was served in the case.
4. Father Kottoor confessed to another individual that he had an illegal connection with Sister Sephy. Sister Sephy, too, confessed to having a sexual relationship.
5. To prove she was a virgin, Sister Sephy had hymenoplasty surgery.
ACCUSED OF LIFE IMPRISONMENT AND SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON
The Catholic priest and nun convicted of killing Sister Abhaya in 1992 were sentenced to life in jail by a CBI court on Wednesday.
Father Thomas Kottoor was sentenced to a double life term and fined Rs 6.5 lakh by Special CBI Judge K Sanal Kumar.
Sister Sephy, the second defendant in the case, was condemned to life in prison and was fined Rs 5.5 lakh.
The pair was also sentenced to seven years in jail for tampering with evidence by the court.
The sentences, however, will run concurrently, according to the court.
Fr. Kottoor was convicted of life in jail for two counts of murder and criminal trespass, respectively, under sections 302 and 449 of the Indian Penal Code.
After the obligatory COVID-19 testing, the accused were brought into judicial custody on Wednesday, with Father Kottoor being sent to Poojapura central jail and Sister Sephy to Attakulangara women’s prison.
Another defendant in the case, Fr. Jose Puthrikkayil, was already released due to a lack of evidence.
THE MURDER OF SISTER ABHAYA
Abhaya (21), a second year BCM college student from Kottayam, was living at St Pius convent.
Kottoor and Poothrikkayil were accused of having an illegal connection with Sephy, another convent prisoner, according to the prosecution.
Abhaya reportedly observed Kottoor and Sephy in a compromising situation on the night of March 27, 1992, and the three accused attacked her with an axe and tossed her down the well.
The matter was first examined by the local police and the state crime department, who concluded that Abhaya had committed suicide.
On March 29, 1993, the CBI took over the investigation and submitted three closure reports stating that, even though it was a murder case, the perpetrators could not be identified.
However, on September 4, 2008, the Kerala High Court slammed the CBI for its handling of the Sister Abhaya murder case, stating that the agency was “still a prisoner of those who wields political and bureaucratic power” and ordering that the investigation be handed over from the Delhi unit to the Kochi counterpart.
In 2008, the central agency detained two priests, Fr. Thomas Kottoor and Fr. Jose Poothrikkayil, as well as a nun, Sister Sephy, on murder charges.
The defendants were arrested in 2008 and freed on bail a year later by the Kerala High Court.
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