The murder case of Sister Abhaya had everything that would put a sex-crime thriller to shame.
It was a case spiced with allegations of sex and murder where the alleged sexual act of the two accused was a relevant fact in the case, according to the CBI court.
Recreating the sequence of the events through evidences, K. Sanilkumar, Additional Sessions Judge/Special Judge (SPE/CBI), concluded it was “inexorable to infer that A1 (Father Thomas. M. Kottoor) entered the ground floor of the convent building with the help of A3 (Sister Sephy) to carry out their sexual activities and on witnessing the same by Sister Abhaya, she was attacked with a blunt weapon.”
“Normally, the sexual antecedents of an accused do not matter, they only matter when they give a bearing to the fact in issue of the case.” Here, the “alleged sexual act of A3 and A1 was the cause of the murder and the murder was the effect,” he concluded.
The “assertion of the prosecution that while both accused were in flagrante delicto, the witness, Sister Abhaya, was attacked by the accused with a blunt weapon is apposite here.” When “the proved circumstances are against the accused persons, it is inevitable to take an inference by applying deductive reasoning that Sister Abhaya was attacked by both the accused with a blunt weapon,” he noted.
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The presence of Fr. Kottoor in the St. Pius X Convent Hostel on the night of 26/27 March 1992 and the solitary presence of Sr. Sephy in her ground floor room of the hostel on the night was proved, the order said.
It was proved that Fr. Kottoor had admitted his relationship with Sr. Sephy, who “underwent hymanoplasty almost on the eve of her arrest by the CBI.” She “utilised medical intervention to shape artificially her body as that of a virgin,” the court noted.
Resurrecting the character of Sr. Abhaya from the heap of allegations of the defence, the judge relied on the evidences to conclude that she was “a very smart, pious, honest, simple, perseverant and punctilious girl, meticulous in all respects. She was leading a happy and altruistic life, and also proved that it was simply impossible for her to have ended her life on her own.”
On several witnesses turning hostile, the judge noted that the “witnesses connected to the congregation, including the inmates of the St. Pius X Convent Hostel, en masse turned hostile to the prosecution without rhyme or reason.”
It is “gleanable that a systematic, organised effort was exerted sub rosa by the powers that be to subvert the prosecution case and prevent it from reaching its logical conclusion,” the court noted.
