The Karnataka High Court on Friday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a petition seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the murder of Fr. K.J. Thomas (62), rector of the St. Peter's Pontifical Seminary in Bangalore.
Justice A.S. Bopanna passed the order on a petition filed by Maria Das, Susainathan, Sister Francina, and Bernard Raju, who are respectively brothers, sister and father of Fr. Father Patrick Xavier, who is the complainant as well as accused in the case. The court also permitted Fr. Xavier to be part of the petitions filed by his family.
The petitioners have questioned the narcoanalysis and other tests such as polygraph and brain mapping on Fr. Xavier saying they were conducted in the absence of his voluntary consent as per Supreme Court guidelines. “The consent affidavits produced before the magistrate was not voluntary. These are drawn and obtained by the Investigating Officer under stressed emotional condition,” the petition said.
Fr. Thomas was found bludgeoned to death in the coffee room in the seminary on the night of April 1 when all the 200 or so students were away on vacation. It was Fr. Xavier, the procurator at the seminary, who was sleeping in the room next to the rector’s, who called the police.
