Shweta Tambade
A special CBI court in Kerala marked a guilty verdict in a 28-year-old Abhaya murder case.
A special CBI court in Thiruvananthapuram had found the priest and nun guilty of murder.
Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy, a priest and a nun of a Catholic Church were found guilty.
The details of the reasoning and findings of the court will be known after the full text of the verdict is released.
The special CBI judge K Sanal Kumar, who handed down the guilty verdict, will hear the convicts on 23rd December 2020.
During a trial that started in August 2019, nine prosecution witnesses in the case had turned aggressive.
Father Jose Poothrikkayil, another accused in the case, was discharged by the CBI Court last year.
While discharging Poothrikkayil, the CBI court held that the prosecution had failed to bring out enough material to proceed against him.
A plea was filed in the High Court against discharging Poothrikkayil in the case. The court, however, rejected it.
Sister Abhaya, born Beena Thomas, was found dead in a well of St Pius X Convent in Kottayam on March 27, 1992.
The investigation into the sister’s death is the longest-running murder investigation in Kerala.
Initially, the case was investigated by local police which declared the death to be suicidal.
However, the final report of the CBI, in 1996, was not accepted by the Chief Judicial Magistrate.
In 2005, another team of investigation found the names linked to the death.
In 2008, the Kerala HC had ordered the Kochi Unit of CBI to lead the investigation, which arrested Father Thomas Kottoor, Father Jose Poothrikkayil and Sister Sephy.