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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After 19 hours of grilling, Rhea Chakraborty has been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau on Tuesday in the drugs case. The 28-year-old actor, named as prime accused in the CBI investigation into Sushant’s death, will be taken for a medical test next at 4pm as part of the formalities.

On day three of her interrogation by the NCB, Rhea Chakraborty admitted she was consuming not just marijuana, but also had drugs.

The actor had earlier admitted ‘procuring drugs’ along with her brother Showik, who has been arrested by NCB. This is another major disclosure made by her, apart from reportedly taking the names of Bollywood stars who were also consuming drugs.

Sushant’s sister Shweta Singh Kirti was among the first ones to react to the news on Twitter. She wrote, “ God is with us”.

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