The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday concluded that at least eight objects submitted in court as material evidence in the Sister Abhaya murder case had been deliberately destroyed.
These included clothes worn by the 21-year-old Sister Abhaya at the time of her death at a convent in Kottayam on the night of March 27, 1992. The evidence also included a headscarf, a pair of slippers, and her personal diary.
The CBI told the court that the destruction of evidence had occurred after the State Police Crime Branch took over the case the same year. The Deputy Superintendent of Police in charge of the probe had sought custody of the evidence as part of his investigation. Subsequently, he made a fake record that the material objects had been returned to the court’s evidence room. However, the evidence was never returned. The transaction was only on paper.
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The objects, including the nun’s diary, which could have been crucial to the case, were never recovered.
May be arraigned
The Dy.SP suspected to be responsible for the destruction of evidence was no more. The evidence he collected hurriedly from the court had been deemed irretrievably lost. The CBI might make his supervisory officer, the then SP, as accused in the case.
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Officials said the findings had little bearing on the murder case.
The charge sheet and those arraigned as accused remain the same.
The agency had investigated the alleged tampering of evidence on the orders of the High Court.
The trial in the case was put on hold till the CBI finished the probe. The report filed by the agency in its special court had apparently cleared the last of the legal hurdles that impeded the trial.
Destruction after Crime Branch took over case
Dy.SP made fake record that objects returned to court