In Kerala’s longest-running murder investigation – the mysterious death of Sister Abhaya on March 27, 1992 – a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Thiruvananthapuram had pronounced a Catholic priest and a nun guilty of the murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment last week.

The elder brother of the murdered nun, Biju Thomas, is a Dubai resident who works in the hotel industry. To him, Sr Abhaya is Beena, “a sweet, innocent girl who was incapable of hurting anyone or anything.”

Speaking to Khaleej Times, he termed it was “divine intervention” that brought the culprits to justice. Sr Abhaya, 19, was found dead inside in the well of the St Pius Convent X convent in Kottayam and it was passed off as a suicide by vested interests.

Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sefi were pronounced guilty by CBI special court judge J Sanal Kumar, who said that the death was a clear case of murder.
Fifty-one-year-old Thomas told Khaleej Times that his dead parents can finally rest in peace. The verdict should have come through when his parents were still alive, he said remembering that his parents died in 2016 not knowing what happened to their daughter.

He said he could not say he was happy, but now he could be at peace about the closure in the case. I can finally put this tragedy behind me.” Thomas had spent several years going in and out of courts in India with his father before moving to Dubai in search of work.

Thomas was 21 and working in Gujarat when Abhaya was killed. Both the Crime Branch and the CBI termed the death a suicide. He left his job and stayed back in Kerala for a year and a half, in the hope that the case would be solved. Thomas said he then left to find job in the Gulf as the family was in financial crisis.

Although he had given up, his parents did not. In 2014, the case was closed. Human rights activist Joemon Puthenpurackal formed an action council and pursued the case all these years.

Thomas also thanked the media “for not forgetting the case”. In a 2018 interview with Khaleej Times, Thomas had said he had lost faith in the judicial system. But he said his father had predicted a few months before his death that justice would prevail and the truth would come out one day.

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The top court had asked the state government to consider adding a former Supreme Court judge and a retired police officer in the probe committee, saying it has ‘appalled’ that the gangster was out on bail.

“We are appalled at the fact that such a person was released on bail. This is a failure of an institution where he was released on bail and did this. We need a report on such bail orders,” Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde said, while hearing petitions for a Central Bureau of Investigation or the National Investigation Agency probe into his death and that of the killing of eight police by Vikas Dubey’s gang members, and for the top court to monitor the probe. The top court has sought a report from the UP government.

The reconstituted panel will now include a retired Supreme Court judge and retired police officer, along with the existing retired high court judge, the UP government said.

“We cannot spare a sitting top court judge to become part of inquiry committee,” the top court bench, headed by the Chief Justice, said during today’s hearing.

Chief Justice Bobde also asked the UP government’s lawyer to look into statements made by the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister. “If they have made certain statements and then something has followed, you should look into this,” the Chief Justice said.

Vikas Dubey was shot dead while trying to escape after a car accident, the UP Police had announced on July 10, a day after his dramatic arrest in Madhya Pradesh. Vikas Dubey snatched the gun of a policeman and opened fire, the police said, asserting that they had tried to catch him alive.

On July 3, eight policemen were killed in a village Kanpur in an ambush set up after Vikas Dubey was tipped off by a local police inspector. Vikas Dubey escaped with many of his men after the massacre. A large team of policemen were on their way to arrest him in an attempted murder case.

The Supreme Court will take up the case next Wednesday after Uttar Pradesh submits the draft notification of the reconstituted probe panel.

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