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	Church Dismisses Police Claims in Abhaya Case Indian Catholic December 4, 2008 http://www.theindiancatholic.com/report.asp?nid=11893 KOCHI (ICNS): Police say a nun and two priests they arrested in Kerala have confessed to murdering a nun 16 years ago, but Catholic Church officials say the three are being framed. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's top investigating agency, claimed in court on Dec. 2 that it has evidence the trio committed the murder to cover up their sexual relations, UCA News reported. “We don’t believe this. The investigation is proceeding with a pre-planned script,” said Father Paul Thelakat, spokesperson for the Syro-Malabar Church (SMC) based in the southern Indian Kerala state. The accused as well as the murdered nun belong to SMC’s Kottayam archdiocese, based 2,650 kilometers south of New Delhi. The SMC and another Oriental Catholic rite based in the state, the Syro-Malankara Church, together with the Latin-rite form the Indian Catholic Church. Sister Abhaya's body was found in a well at her Pius X Convent in Kottayam on March 27, 1992. The nun was 21 when she died. She and the arrested nun belong to the indigenous Sisters of St. Joseph. The CBI arrested Fathers Thomas Kottoor, 61, and Jose Poothrukayil, 56, on Nov. 18 and Sister Sephy, 45, a day later, suspecting their involvement in Sister Abhaya's death. A lower court remanded them to judicial custody until Dec. 2. While producing them before the court on Dec. 2, the CBI said their investigations showed Sister Abhaya had seen the three in sexually compromising positions near the convent’s kitchen. Embarrassed, Fathers Kottoor and Poothrukayil hit the young nun with a blunt weapon and, with the help of Sister Sephy, dumped her body in a well, according to the CBI version of events. The court has extended the remand of the three accused, pending trial. The CBI claims are damaging the image of the Church, Father Thelakat told UCA News on Dec. 4. He said several CBI teams in the past 16 years had investigated the case but failed to furnish any evidence. “It is hard to believe that the CBI suddenly could unearth the mystery behind the death. Now the CBI claims it has conclusive evidence in the involvement of the three accused. It’s hard to believe,” he said. Kottayam archdiocese echoed similar sentiments. Sabu Kurian, archdiocesan public relations officer told UCA News the accused were framed to save the image of the investigators. He said media and courts began to question the efficiency of the CBI after 16 years of failing to conclude the investigation. “This forced the CBI to arrest somebody in the case. Now they have framed two priests and a nun. We believe the arrested are innocent,” he said. Kurian added that the Church would contest any CBI murder charge before the Supreme Court. The CBI in its statement said the three accused were “deceptive and dubious” in their answers during interrogation. It also charged the priests and the nun were highly influential people, tampered with evidence and exerted undue influence on witnesses. The investigators cited evidence accumulated through years of investigations and the use of truth drugs in interrogations of the accused. They also recorded before the court statements by a petty thief who claims to have seen the crime and by a neighbor of the convent who saw Father Kottoor’s motorbike at the convent on the night Sister Abhaya died. The CBI also produced the results of a virginity test on the arrested nun, which it said was conducted with her written consent. However, the nun told the court it was done without her consent. The CBI report of the test conducted in a government medical college said the arrested nun’s virginity could not be ascertained “as there is surgical interference observed on hymen.”
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