The CBI on Thursday took a priest and two nuns to Bangalore to conduct narco-analysis tests as a part of its efforts to uncover the mystery behind the 15-year-old Sister Abhaya murder case. Fr Jose Putarika was a Malayalam professor at the BCM College in Kottayam where Abhaya studied while the two nuns were inmates of the Pius X Convent where she stayed.
Among the nuns, Sister Shirley was the roommate of Sr Abhaya while Sr Stephanie was the one who identified her clothes and slipper from the body.
The CBI had earlier subjected Fr Thomas Kottoor, the diocesan chancellor of the Knanaya Catholic Church, to the truth serum test. Kottoor was a professor of psychology in Abhaya’s college. V V Augustine, a former police official, had also undergone the test then.
The CBI team had earlier secured permission from the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate to conduct the tests. The agency received the nod after it claimed to have unearthed crucial information on the death from the analysis done on Fr Kottoor.
Sr Abhaya was found dead in the well of the Pius X convent on March 27, 1992.
The Kerala police had written off the death as suicide and even destroyed the nun’s clothes and other key evidence.
However, the CBI concluded in November 1996 that it was a homicide. Despite its best efforts, the murderer has managed to remained untraced.
