A court in the capital of Kerala State in India passed a guilty verdict in a 28-year-old murder of a
19-year-old novice in which a priest and a nun were the main accused.
A Special CBI Court in Thiruvananthapuram found Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy, a priest and nun of the Catholic Church respectively, guilty of murder of Sister Abhaya, then 19 years old.
Special CBI Judge K Sanal Kumar, who handed down the guilty verdict, will hear the convicts on the sentence on December 23.
Nine prosecution witnesses in the case had turned hostile during the trial which started in August 2019.
Another accused in the case, Father Jose Poothrikkayil, was discharged by the CBI Court last year.
he Court had rejected the discharge pleas of Kottoor and Sephy observing that there were sufficient grounds for prima facie presuming that the two had Committed offences punishable under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destroying evidences) read with section 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention). The dismissal of their discharge petitions was approved by the High Court and the Supreme Court.
K T Micheal, a former officer of the Kerala police special branch, who was accused of destruction of evidence, was also discharged by the court last year.
Earlier this year, the High Court of Kerala ruled that the results of narco-analysis and brain mapping process done on the accused cannot be used in evidence.
Sister Abhaya’s parents passed away four years ago.
