Abhaya murder case: Priest, nun sentenced to life imprisonment by CBI court

The murder of 19-year-old Sister Abhaya is a crime that has been a part of Kerala’s news cycle ever since the Catholic nun’s body was found inside a well at a convent in Kottayam on March 27, 1992.

The CBI special court in Thiruvananthapuram Wednesday sentenced Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy, the first and third accused respectively in the 1992 Sr Abhaya murder case, to life imprisonment on the charge of murder (Section 302) and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakhs each under Section 302 murder. Fr Kotoor was given additional life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh under Section 449 IPC. The duo have also got seven years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 each under section 201 ((destruction of evidence)). Sentences will run concurrently.

On Tuesday, after a 28-year-wait, the court found them guilty of murdering Sr Abhaya, a 19-year-old Catholic nun, and dumping her body in the well of the Pius Xth convent in Kottayam on March 27, 1992. The prosecution had argued that Sr Abhaya, after waking up early in the morning, had found the first and third accused along with another priest, who was let off by a court, in a compromising position. Fearing that they would be outed before the church, which has stringent celibacy rules for priests and nuns, the accused killed Sr Abhya and dumped her body in the well.

The prosecution had argued for the toughest punishment for both the accused, claiming that the case was ‘rarest of the rare’. However, the defence counsel, citing the age and health problems of the accused, pleaded for a lighter punishment. Fr Kottoor is purportedly suffering from an advanced stage of cancer while Sr Sephy has diabetes and a condition related to the weakening of bones.

Fr Kottoor had been found guilty under sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 459 (causing grievous hurt while trespassing) of the IPC. Sr Sephy had been found guilty under sections 302 and 201.

When justice K Sanal Kumar asked the prosecution if it was a ‘pre-planned murder’, the latter said no.

While Fr Kottoor is likely to undergo his punishment at the Poojapura central jail, Sr Sephy would most likely be incarcerated at the Attakulangara women’s prison. Both of them had undergone preliminary medical examination yesterday after being found guilty in the case.

The “Abhaya case” was among the longest and most high-profile real-life murder mysteries in Kerala, with multiple twists and turns. The accused were arrested by the CBI in November 2008, more than 16 years after the nun’s death. And during the trial, eight of the 49 prosecution witnesses, most of them close to the Church, turned hostile.

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