Kerala court grants bail to priest and nun who killed Sister Abhaya

 

 

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 25: The Kerala High Court on June 23 granted bail to a Catholic priest and a nun for killing another nun Sister Abhaya. Both were convicted and sentenced to life term for killing Sister Abhaya in 1992.

Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy were serving their life term in the nearly three decades old Sister Abhaya murder case.

 

 

The Kerala HC Bench of Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice C. Jayachandran granted them bail on a bond of Rs 500,000before being released. However, the HC directed father Thomas Kottoor (72) and Sister Sephy (59) not to leave the state.

 

The bail to these two is seen as 'great relief' by the Catholic Church in Kerala for, it has refused to accept their conviction. The Catholic Church believed in their innocence in this case. The Church authorities did not even bother to remove the priest and the nun ignoring the demand of a relatively smaller section of the community.

A special Central Bureau of Investigtion (CBI) court had sentenced both Father Kottoor and Sister Sephy to the life term on December 23, 2020 in the case of 1992 murder of the 19-year-old Sister Abhaya.

 

Both the convicts were granted parole of 90 days in May 2021 during the covid pandemic conditions inspite of opposition from the human rights activists.

 

The CBI told the court the the accused had committed the crime to cover up their indulgence in the sexual acts which Sister Abhaya witnessed accidently while she had gone to collect drinking water on March 27, 1992 morning.

They killed the young sister and dumped her body in the well of St. Pius Convent in Kottayam district in the same morning. They were also found guilty of destroying the evidence. Fr. Thomas Kottoor was sentenced to double imprisonment.

 

Sister Abhaya’s murder was one of the most protracted court cases in Indian judicial history after church leaders termed it a suicide.

 

Social activist Jomon Puthenpurackal founded a civil society group to take the case to its logical end after state police and the CBI initially closed it for want of evidence.

 

UCA News quoted a Catholic Church official on condition of annonymity as saying, "We are happy for them. At least they got bail now. They should have got it much earlier.” The official said they still believe both of them are innocent and will prove it in the higher court.