CBI draws flak as Kerala HC grants bail to Abhaya murder case convicts

A priest and a nun, who were convicted in the three-decade-old sister Abhaya murder case, were granted bail on Thursday by the Kerala High Court.

Priest Thomas M Kottoor and Sister Sephy were granted bail by providing bail bond of Rs 5 lakh each, two solvent sureties, and on condition that they were not allowed to travel outside the country. The two were sentenced to life by a CBI special court in Thiruvananthapuram in December 2020, but the Kerala High Court, considering their petition to suspend sentence until a decision on their appeals was made, gave them bail.

Activist Jomon Puthenpurackal alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation, by not vehemently opposing the convicts’ appeals to suspend sentence, aided them. He alleged that the CBI didn’t even file a counter affidavit.

Puthenpurackal, who headed an action council seeking justice for the murdered nun and was instrumental in keeping the case in limelight, said he would file an appeal against the convicts’ bail.

Abhaya, 21-year-old sister was found dead in a well within the St. Pius X convent premises in Kottayam on March 27, 1992. CBI’s findings were that Abhaya, who was a second-year pre-degree student at Kottayam BCM College, saw the accused in a compromising position when she went to the kitchen to drink water. Consequently, she was murdered by them using an axe and her body was then dumped into the well.

The conviction in the case came 28 years after the incident.