146;92 nun 145;rape146;: Lab report to be probed

This court order comes after Jomon Puthenpurackal, a rights activist, moved the court for reopening the case following newspaper reports that the lab report had been been crudely corrected with whitener and over-written in a different handwriting to contradict the original findings indicating rape before death.

Sister Abhaya8217;s body was found in the well of her hostel at the Pius 10th Convent in Kottayam. Residents in the hostel had told the police that she was last seen before dawn walking towards the kitchen. The case has been through many twists and turns in the past 15 years with the local police, the state crime branch and the CBI taking turns to investigate it. There was a public uproar after Kerala Police wrote off the case as a 8220;suicide8221;, while media reports hinted at efforts by certain influential sections to sabotage the probe. The police crime branch probe too did not fare any better, and the case eventually went to the CBI.

In 1996, the CBI8217;s Chennai unit concluded that it was indeed a case of homicide. It asked for permission to close the case since no further progress could be made. The Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate slammed the CBI report and directed the agency to do a fresh probe. The CBI, however, repeated the plea, and the court again rejected its report and asked it to probe again.

Soon after in 2003, CBI Deputy Superintendent Varghese P Thomas, who headed the probe team, resigned in the middle of the probe, ten years before his retirement. The officer accused CBI Superintendent of Police V Thyagarajan of pressuring him to botch up investigations into this case and take it no further. Thomas had gone on record to say that the CBI investigation into this case could get nowhere because it was being sabotaged. He had accused a certain section from Kerala was using their clout with the then Prime Minister8217;s Office to get the then CBI director fall in line. After Thomas quit, the case was handed over to the CBI8217;s New Delhi unit.

The leakage of the original and allegedly tampered chemical analysis report is now expected to give the CBI something to work on, though lab officials maintain that it was a normal practice to rewrite and correct reports when required. Home department sources confirm that neither the local police nor the CBI had accessed the original lab report kept in the laboratory8217;s custody. Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan today, however, ruled out a parallel probe by the state police in the light of the new development.