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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According to the reports by India Today, the CBI also pointed at the lapses in the investigation conducted by Uttar Pradesh police.

The mother of the minor accused told the news channel that her son is a minor. The CBI team had visited their house and taken the marksheet.

The four accused in the Hathras alleged gangrape case are now at the Aligarh jail. A CBI team questioned the four accused in the Hathras case for over 8 hours. The agency also met doctors at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, where the victim was treated.

Meanwhile, Dr Azeem Malik, who publicly contradicted the UP version of the Hathras gangrape and murder case, has been told his services are no longer required at the hospital.

Dr Azeem Malik was the temporary Chief Medical Officer of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital. His statement that the FSL (forensic science laboratory) report – samples for which were taken 11 days after the October 14 assault – held no value directly contradicted Additional Director General (Law and Order), Prashant Kumar’s statement, who had said the FSL report showed that no rape took place.

On September 14, a 19-year-old Dalit girl was gang-raped and beaten up by the four accused while she was working on the fields with her family. She was then left to die with severe injuries on her backbone and tongue.

Two weeks later, she passed away at a hospital in Delhi, triggering massive protests and outrage across the country, accusing the Uttar Pradesh government of lapses in the probe. The case was later handed over to CBI.

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The HC also granted bail to Sushant Singh Rajput’s cook Dipesh Sawant and his domestic help Samuel Miranda on a personal bond of Rs50,000 each. On October 6, a special court extended Rhea’s judicial remand till October 20

Rhea’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde said that they are happy about the order. He said that the arrest and custody of Rhea was totally unwarranted and beyond the reach of law and the witch hunt by Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and Narcotics Control Bureau.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has earlier strongly opposed the bail pleas filed by Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik, and other co-accused in a drug case. The agency had told the Bombay High Court that a strong message needed to be sent out to the society, especially youngsters, to ensure they did not consume drugs.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said the siblings and others arrested were “active members of a drug syndicate” and vowed to go to the roots of the case

Rhea Chakraborty, who was reportedly in a relationship with Sushant Singh Rajput, was arrested by the NCB on September 8, for allegedly procuring drugs for Sushant Singh Rajput.

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“Sushant death is a case of suicide. Murder completely ruled out,” Dr Sudhir Gupta said.

The panel of AIIMS doctors was re-evaluating Sushant Singh Rajput’s post-mortem and viscera report based on the 20 per cent viscera sample available with them. The forensic agencies have examined a laptop, two hard disks, a canon camera and two mobile phones.

The 34-year old movie star was found dead on June 14 in his Mumbai apartment. Though the Mumbai police, based on the autopsy, called it suicide, Sushant Singh Rajput’s family raised doubts that became a part of an overall CBI investigation.

The AIIMS doctors had submitted their findings to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on September 29. Earlier Cooper Hospital, where Sushant Singh Rajput autopsy was conducted found that the actor’s death was a case of suicide. The circumstantial evidences also point it to be a case of suicide, ruling out any foul play.

The CBI will be continuing its probe from the angle of a suicide, particularly the abetment of suicide angle. It has been 57 days since CBI began probe of SSR’s death case.

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CBI judge SK Yadav, who had directed all 32 accused to be present during the proceedings today, has arrived at the court. While BJP veterans have skipped the proceedings, Vinay Katiyar, Dharamdas, Vedanti, Lallu Singh, Champat Rai, and Pawan Pandey are among the accused who will be in the court today. While Advani, Joshi, and co-accused Nritya Gopal Das are above 80 years of age Bharti and another accused, Satish Pardhan, are in hospital.

Special CBI court judge Surendra Kumar Yadav had already issued directives to all the accused, including former Deputy PM LK Advani, BJP stalwarts Murli Manohar Joshi, form UP CM and ex-Governor of Rajasthan Kalyan Singh, former BJP lawmaker Vinay Katiyar and Uma Bharti along with 32 others.

The court tried those who were allegedly involved in the criminal conspiracy leading to the demolition of Babri mosque by frenzied kar sevaks in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

The court also completed all proceedings in the case by recording statements of all 32 accused. Lawyer KK Mishra, who is representing 25 out of the 32 accused in the case, including Advani, Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, had also confirmed the date set by the court for delivering the verdict.

The Supreme Court had given the CBI court a one-month extension, instructing it to wind up the case by September 30. The earlier deadline for judgment had expired on August 31.

The charges of conspiracy are in addition to the existing charges against the accused of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, for which they are also facing trial. The accused are also facing charges of having made assertions “prejudicial to national integration and injuring or defiling a place of worship”. The CBI had filed a chargesheet against 49 people in the case, of whom 17 died during trial. The court recorded statements of 351 prosecution witnesses.

On April 19, 2017, the Supreme Court had ordered the special judge to conduct day-to-day trial, concluding it in two years.

The SC had termed the Allahabad High Court’s February 12, 2001 verdict dropping conspiracy charges against Advani and others as “erroneous”.

Before the 2017 verdict of the apex court, there were two sets of cases relating to the demolition, going on in Lucknow and Rae Bareli.

The first case referred to kar sevaks who were proceeded against in a Lucknow court, while the second set of cases relating to eight VIPs was being heard in a Rae Bareli court.

In April 2017, the Supreme Court transferred the Rae Bareli case to the Special CBI court in Lucknow.

While Advani and Joshi attended court proceeding and recorded statements through video conference, the rest of the accused appeared in Lucknow to record their statements.

Almost all the accused pleaded not guilty and termed it as a conspiracy hatched by their political rivals to frame them in a conspiracy case.

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“The organisation has been compelled to let go of staff in India and pause all its ongoing campaign and research work. This is latest in the incessant witch-hunt of human rights organisations by the Government of India over unfounded and motivated allegations”, Amnesty International India said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Amnesty International India said its bank accounts were frozen on September 10. Amnesty said it had highlighted rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir and riots in Delhi in recent days and the government had sought to punish it for that.

#NEWS: Amnesty International India Halts Its Work On Upholding Human Rights In India Due To Reprisal From Government Of Indiahttps://t.co/W7IbP4CKDq

— Amnesty India (@AIIndia) September 29, 2020

“The continuing crackdown on Amnesty International India over the last two years and the complete freezing of bank accounts is not accidental. The constant harassment by government agencies including the Enforcement Directorate is a result of our unequivocal calls for transparency in the government, more recently for accountability of the Delhi police and the government of India regarding the grave human rights violations in Delhi riots and Jammu and Kashmir. For a movement that has done nothing but raise its voices against injustice, this latest attack is akin to freezing dissent,” said Avinash Kumar, Executive Director of Amnesty International India.

In 2019, Amnesty testified before the US Foreign Affairs Committee during a hearing on human rights in South Asia, where it highlighted its findings about the grave situation of Jammu and Kashmir, which includes arbitrary detentions and the use of excessive force and torture in Kashmir.

The group has faced scrutiny by different government agencies in the country over the past few years.

In August 2016, a case of sedition was filed against Amnesty India over allegations that anti-India slogans were raised at one of its events. Three years later, a court ordered the charges to be dropped.

In October 2018, the group’s offices in the southern city of Bangalore were raided by the Enforcement Directorate, which investigates financial crimes. Its accounts were frozen then too, but Amnesty says it was able to access them after seeking a court’s intervention.
In early 2019, the group says dozens of its small donors were sent letters by the country’s income tax department. And later in the same year, Amnesty’s offices were raided again, this time by the Central Bureau of Investigation, based on a case registered by India’s home affairs ministry.

The group said it will continue to fight its legal cases in India.

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Balabhaskar’s friend Prakashan Thampi, Vishnu Somasundaram, driver Arjun and Kalabhavan Soby have given consent undergo the the test. The CBI officers said that they have decided to carry out the polygraph test this month itself.

The CBI officers will also record the statements of popular musician Stephen Devassy. He has been summoned to the Thiruvananthapuram office on Thursday.

Balabhaskar died in a car accident in Thiruvananthapuram on September 25, 2018. His wife Lakshmi, daughter Tejaswini Bala and driver Arjun were also travelling with him in the car. The two-year old daughter died on the spot, while Balabhaskar succumbed to the injuries at the hospital. His wife Lakshmi and driver Arjun were also injured but survived.

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On September 11, just hours after Agnivesh’s death, Rao put out a tweet saying he was an “anti-Hindu donning saffron clothes.”

https://twitter.com/MNageswarRaoIPS/status/1304450962036158465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1304450962036158465%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheprint.in%2Findia%2Fformer-cbi-chief-nageswara-rao-slammed-for-calling-swami-agniveshs-death-good-riddance%2F501200%2F

“My grievance against Yamaraj is why did he wait this long,” he further wrote.

Agnivesh, 80, died at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences in New Delhi on September 11, after a multiple-organ failure and a cardiac arrest.

As the founder-chairperson of the Bandhua Mukti Morcha (Bonded Labour Liberation Front), Agnivesh gained recognition across the country and the globe for his efforts to end bonded labour.

He was also a vocal opponent of communal politics and implored people to “unitedly fight communal forces”.

Many on Twitter called out Rao for spreading “hate”.

Historian Irfan Habib called out Rao and questioned what he would have done “as a police officer”.

You are a disgrace. Can imagine what all you must have done as a police officer? Abusing the dead may be Hindutva but is certainly not Hinduism. Better late than never. Get yourself treated. https://t.co/Shh4zlmduc

— S lrfan Habib एस इरफान हबीब عرفان حبئب (@irfhabib) September 12, 2020

Many others such as lawyer Navdeep Singh pointed out that he was serving in the government until recently, “with such thoughts at the back of his mind”.

However, despite the backlash, Rao insisted that he wasn’t wrong.

https://twitter.com/MNageswarRaoIPS/status/1304626821510565888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1304626821510565888%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheprint.in%2Findia%2Fformer-cbi-chief-nageswara-rao-slammed-for-calling-swami-agniveshs-death-good-riddance%2F501200%2F

https://twitter.com/MNageswarRaoIPS/status/1304484892047073281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1304484892047073281%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheprint.in%2Findia%2Fformer-cbi-chief-nageswara-rao-slammed-for-calling-swami-agniveshs-death-good-riddance%2F501200%2F

This is not the first time Rao has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

In July, 2020, Rao had tweeted a series of graphics on the story of Project Abrahamisation of Hindu Civilisation.

https://twitter.com/MNageswarRaoIPS/status/1286870430104424449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1286870430104424449%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheprint.in%2Findia%2Fformer-cbi-chief-nageswara-rao-slammed-for-calling-swami-agniveshs-death-good-riddance%2F501200%2F

Many retired IPS officers had criticised Rao for his comments at the time.

Rao, a 1986-batch IPS officer, was shunted out as CBI’s additional director in July 2019 after spending one year in that post. He was then appointed as the General (DG) Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guard, the tenure of which ended in July ,2020.

Rao was made the interim CBI chief in 2018 amid a spat between then Director General Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana.

He had a controversial career with several complaints of financial irregularities which led to investigations against him.

Some of the complaints against him included scuttling and influencing investigations within the CBI, misappropriation of funds while in office and his wife’s involvement in a shell company.

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Police officers revealed that Sanjana’s house was raided following information from Rahul Shetty, an accused who was arrested in connection with the drug case recently.

Investigation officers revealed that Rahul Shetty was a private agent who was an expert in hosting drug parties. Shetty has previously hosted parties for top-rated celebrities in various locations in Bengaluru and outside the country.

“Rahul’s job was to bring in celebrities to these parties. He would get a commission from the profits made. He would also procure drugs that the celebrities consumed. He and Sanjana were good friends and have attended several parties together,” said a CCB official.

The arrest of Sanjana happened just a few days after actress Ragini Dwivedi was nabbed by the police for her alleged connection with the drug racket. According to reports, more celebrity arrests will happen in the coming days, as police have apparently received strict instructions from the government to demolish the drug syndicate in the state.

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Now, popular filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has extended his support to Rhea, and he has strongly lashed out at media outlets that are trying to target the actress in connection with the death case.

“The Hunting and Murdering of RHEA CHAKRABORTY …Wahhhh what a Republic of India we have,” wrote RGV on his Twitter page.

In the same tweet, Ram Gopal Varma sarcastically stated that Arnab Goswami is 100 notches above Mahatma Gandhi in his pursuit of truth.

“Arnab Goswami is 100 notches above Mahatma Gandhi in his pursuit of truth …Arnab should write “My Experiments with truth 2.0,” added RGV.

It was around a few days back that Ram Gopal Varma announced the launch of his new movie that will be made on the life of Arnab, the celebrated Indian journalist. Varma also revealed that the title of this new movie will be ‘Arnab: The News Prostitute’.

According to Varma, he decided to make a movie on Arnab as the news anchor always used to make sure that no one’s point of view is ever heard during his debate programs.

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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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The probe into the alleged custodial killings of a father-son duo in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin is all set to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the Madras High Court, which is hearing the case after taking suo moto cognisance, on June 29 said that it doesn’t have any objection with nor will it interfere with the state government’s decision in this regard.

On Tamil Nadu government’s appeal seeking permission to shift the Thoothukudi custodial death case of father-son to CBI, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court said they don’t have any objection and will not interfere with the decision of the state government.

Notably, the development comes a day after Chief Minister Edapaddi K. Palaniswami, who oversees the police department and has come under fire over the incident, announced that the state government would transfer the probe to the CBI after getting permission from the Madurai bench of the High Court, in the next hearing on June 30.

The issue pertains to the death of 59-year-old Jayaraj and his 31-year-old son Bennicks, who died within days of being released from police custody after being arrested on June 19 for opening their mobile shop open beyond permissible business hours due to the coronavirus lockdown.

However, it was later alleged that while in custody, the two were subjected to torture, and even sexual assault, and died as a result of the injuries they sustained. The incident has triggered massive outrage across the state.

The state government has suspended four policemen, including two sub-inspectors. It has also announced a monetary compensation for the bereaved family.

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