By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : The 13th Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team has begun its probe into the 1992 killing of Sister Abhaya, a nun whose body was found in the well of a convent in Kottayam. Twelve teams have so far failed to crack the murder case.
The new team, an all-Kerala one led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Nandakumaran Nair, has begun by collecting evidence and questioning a few people who live near the convent, a CBI official here said.
The Kerala High Court had last month rapped the investigating agency over the slow progress in its probe and asked the Kerala unit of the CBI to take over.
Eyebrows was raised a few days back when the team picked up a person who lives near the convent, but he was released soon after, officials said.
Abhaya, an inmate of Pious X hostel near here, was found dead in the well of the convent March 27, 1992. The CBI concluded in November 1996 that the death was a homicide but the murderer remained untraced.
The CBI has been saying that evidence in the case has been destroyed during investigations by the state police.
The court has asked the new team to submit its first information report to the court in 45 days and submit the first full progress report of the investigation before Feb 4, 2009.
The case ignited public interest again in April last year after a newspaper reported that Abhaya’s medical reports were tampered with at a chemical laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram.
Last year, two priests and a nun in Kottayam had to undergo truth serum tests in connection with the case.