Abhaya case: CBI to quiz former CFSL chief

 The agency said it would question former additional director of CFSL S Malini, who carried out the narcoanalysis.  The agency gave this statement in the Ernakulam CJM court while responding to a notice on a plea by the nun’s father that Malini’s residence be raided.

A X Verghese, counsel for Sister Abhaya’s father Thomas Aikkarakunnel, suspected that the accused might have tried to destroy the tapes. An expert panel of C-DIT here had claimed that the master CDs of the tests had been tampered with. It found many cuts and overlapping in the videos of the analysis carried out on the accused Fr Thomas Kottoor, Fr Jose Puthrukkayil and Sister Sephy.  The 32-minute, 50-second CD of the narco analysis performed on Fr Kottoor was edited at 30 places. The CD of Fr Puthrukkayil (40 minutes, 55 seconds) was edited at 19 places and the 18-minute, 42-second CD of Sister Sephy was edited at 23 places. Techniques such as ‘dissolve’ were used on the CDs, and in many places the audio track failed to synchronise with lip movements. The CBI would seek details regarding these findings from C-DIT.

The CFSL director has clarified that cuts and editing were routine procedures. The CBI submitted that there was no need to register a case against Malini, and that its priority would be to understand why the editing was done and also to recover the original tapes.