A special CBI court on Wednesday sentenced accused priest Thomas Kottoor and nun Sephy to life imprisonment in the sensational Sister Abhaya murder case. Earlier, the court, while providing the verdict, had pronounced both the accused as guilty. The court held Kottoor and Sephy guilty of murder under Sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (tampering of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code. It also found Kottoor guilty of criminal trespass. The verdict comes after a long 28 years.
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Sister Abhaya, a resident of Pius X convent in Kottayam in Kerala, was found dead in the well of the convent on March 27, 1992. On the night of March 27, 1992, Abhaya allegedly saw Kottoor and Sephy in a compromising position, following which the three hacked her with an axe and threw her into the well, it had said in its charge sheet.
Initially, both the Crime Branch and the CBI termed the death a suicide, but activist Joemon Puthenpurackal, who formed an action council, was pursuing the case. The turnaround happened after Puthenpurackal managed to get the case reopened. Following this, the CBI cracked it.
On November 19, 2008, the CBI arrested the three accused, including Poothrikkayil—a former Malayalam professor at a Kottayam college where Abhaya studied; Kottoor, the diocesan chancellor of the Catholic Church at Kottayam, and Sephy, a resident of the convent where the incident took place. The statement of Raju, a then petty thief who had entered the convent to steal something on the day of the crime, was crucial in ensuring justice in the case.
On January 1, 2009, the three accused got bail.
