New twist in Sister Abhaya murder case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday told the Kerala High Court that a former Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, who is currently a Supreme Court judge, had viewed the video of the narco analysis tests conducted on the three accused in the Sister Abhaya murder case.

CBI special prosecutor S Sreekumar told the court that Justice Cyriac Joseph visited the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Bangalore on May 23 last year and had verified the CD's of the narco-analysis test conducted on two Catholic priests and a nun accused in the case.

Sreekumar made the observation after the victim's father A Thomas filed a contempt petition against the CBI for failing to investigate reports that the contents in the CD was tampered with.

AX Varghese, counsel for Sr Abhaya's father Thomas, called for a probe into the matter by a judge of the Supreme Court.

"At that time, there were no cases of that sort at the Karnataka High Court. Moreover, it seems that the judge had seen only the tapes related to the Abhaya case when the lab had conducted nearly 1,000 narco-analyses," Varghese was quoted by the media saying.

The media also noted that the judge was a devout faithful of the powerful Knanaya Catholic Church, to which the murdered nun belonged.

The CBI earlier claimed that Fr Thomas Kottoor, Fr Jose Puthrikkayil and Sister Sephi had three killed the junior nun and dumped her body into the well of the convent 17 years ago after she witnessed their sexual act.

The 21-year-old nun was found murdered on March 27, 1992, in the convent well in St Pious X convent in Kottayam.