Kerala HC grants bail to priest and nun sentenced to life in Abhaya murder case

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday granted bail to a Catholic priest and a nun convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 21-year-old Sister Abhaya, whose body was found in the well of a convent in Kottayam in 1992.

A bench of Justices K Vinod Chandran and C Jayachandran suspended the execution of the sentences of Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy and granted them bail subject to each of them furnishing a bond of Rs 5 lakh.

The order came in an application seeking bail filed by them in their respective appeals challenging their conviction and life imprisonment by a special CBI court in the murder case.

First, the local police and then the crime branch investigated and concluded that it was a case of suicide.

The CBI took over the investigation of the case in 2008 and the trial the case began on August 26, 2019, and many witnesses had turned hostile.

According to the prosecution, Abhaya was attacked with the handle of an axe because she was witness to some alleged immoral activity involving the three accused.

Then 21-year-old Sister Abhaya’s body was found in the well of the St. Pious convent at Kottayam in Kerala on March 27, 1992.

Abhaya, a second-year student of BCM College, Kottayam, was staying at the convent and according to the prosecution, she witnessed an illicit relationship allegedly between the two convicts and Fr Jose Puthrikkayil following which they hacked her with an axe and threw her into the well.

Puthrikkayil was discharged from the case due to a lack of evidence.