Fifteen years on, mystery still shrouds nun's death

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 22 (UNI) The 15-year-old mystery over the death of a nun in Kerala, which the Central Bureau of Investigation is re-investigating and has not found any lead, has taken a new turn with reports coming out that the chemical examination report was tampered with.

Soon after reports of manipulation surfaced in the Sister Abhaya case, the chemical examination report and other documents were immediately seized from the Chemical Examiner's Laboratory here on the orders of the Chief Judicial Magistrate.

The CBI sleuths also questioned Chief Chemical Examiner R Geetha, who was then the head of the Toxicology Department and Joint Chemical Examiner under whose supervision the forensic tests were conducted.

The chemical examination results are the only evidence now left for the CBI and taking this into account, the seized documents had been kept in custody.

Sister Abhaya was found dead in a well at the Pius X Convent in Kottayam on March 27, 1992. An action committee, led by human rights activist Joemon Puthenpurakkal, had alleged that she was strangled and thrown into the well.

The state police and the Crime Branch had dismissed it as suicide. The case was then handed over to the CBI in 1993, which had initially endorsed the police version but after attempts at closing the case thrice has of late concluded it was a case of homicide but said the murderer remained untraced.

The Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate did not accept the CBI's final report and directed it to conduct a fresh investigation. The court had thrice rejected the final report filed by the CBI asking for a closure of the case.

The CBI also came under cloud when Dy S P Varghese P Thomas, who began investigating the case, suddenly quit in 1993 saying that he was under duress from authorities to close the case as a suicide.

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