A special CBI court at Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday has pronounced life imprisonment to Father Thomas M Kottoor and Sister Sephy, a priest and a nun of the Catholic church respectively, for the murder of sister Abhaya. The controversial murder case has been awaiting verdict for the last 28 years. Special CBI court judge K Sanil Kumar considered the case.
The court had found first accused Father Thomas Kottoor and third accused Sister Sephy as guilty in the case on December 22.
The culprits were also imposed a fine of Rupees 5 lakh each under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. Kottoor was imposed an additional fine of Rs 1 lakh for the offence under Section 449 of the Indian Penal Code.
While Kottoor has been found guilty for offences under Section 302(murder), 201(destruction of evidence) and 449 (criminal trespass) of the Indian Penal Code, Sephy was held guilty for offences under Section 302 and 201 IPC.
The prosecution pleaded for maximum sentence for the culprits by arguing that case belonged to ‘rarest of rarest category’. It was argued that the murder was gruesome as Kottoor and Sephy were duty bound to protect Abhaya, being her teacher and hostel warden respectively.
The defence lawyers pleaded for leniency saying that Kottoor, aged 71, was suffering from cancer and Sephy has aged parents to take care of.
Abhaya, an inmate of St.Pius X convent in Kottayam, was found dead in the well of Pious Tenth convent in Kottayam on March 27,1992. The local police and crime branch initiated a probe into the case, they dismissed the probe as suicide.
Since the case had no eyewitnesses, it was founded wholly on circumstantial and forensic evidences. What proved vital in the case was the testimony of “Adakka” Raju, a thief who was in the convent premises on the fateful night of March 27, 1992 with the intention of stealing the copper wires from the lightning rod installed at the terrace. Raju told the court that while he was sitting atop a tree to scale down the convent wall, he saw two men climbing down the staircase at the rear side of the building. He identified one of them as accused Kottoor. He could not identify the second person.
Raju’s testimony turned out to be vital in linking Kottoor to the crime. Raju also told the court that the crime branch had arrested him soon after the crime and had tortured him forcing him to own up the crime. He also said that he was offered crores of rupees to confess that he had killed Abahya during a theft attempt.
Though several key prosecution witnesses turned hostile during the trial, Raju stood firm in his testimony.
Shortly after the verdict was pronounced , the bail of the two accused was cancelled and police took them into custody. They were taken to the hospital for medical examination as well as the mandatory Covid-19 mandatory screening test.
