At least two persons listed as witnesses in the Sister Abhaya case could face the prospect of prosecution for perjury, according to officials.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to file a report in court seeking the prosecution of Sanju P. Mathew and Sister Anupama on the charge of having given false evidence in the case during trial.
The CBI had listed them as the fourth and fifth witnesses in the case, respectively. However, they allegedly shifted allegiance to defence during the trial.
Three-year jail term
The offence against them, if proved, entailed a punishment of up to three years of imprisonment.
The prosecution in the case had not gone well for the CBI initially. The nun had retracted her statement that she had seen the headscarf and a pair of slippers that belonged to Abhaya lying beside the well from which rescue workers had fished out the novice’s body the next day. Sister Anupama also denied she had heard the sound of something heavy falling into the well the previous night.
Mr. Mathew, a neighbour, had repudiated his statement that he had witnessed the accused priests, Fr. Thomas. M. Kottoor and Fr. Father Jose Poothrukayil, near the convent at the time of the alleged crime.
Earlier, the court had discharged Father Jose Poothrukayil from facing trial in the case.
Preemptive action
The CBI’s reported move is perceived as a preemptive action to reduce the likelihood of more witnesses turning hostile to the prosecution as the trial in the case proceeded.
A lawyer for the defence said that the onus was on the CBI to prove that the witnesses had committed perjury. He said he believed the agency had coerced the witnesses to give statements favourable to its case. No CBI official was available for comment.
The agency had argued that Sister Stephi had hit Abhaya three times on the head with the blunt side of an axe when the 19-year-old novice entered the convent’s kitchen to drink water and found her senior and Fr. Thomas in ‘objectionable circumstances’.
The CBI had averred that the accused had thrown Abhaya into the convent’s well to make her death appear as a case of suicide or an accident.
