By IANS,
Kochi : The Kerala High Court Thursday rapped the the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the slow progress in its probe into the death of Abhaya, a nun whose body was found in the well of a convent at Kottayam in 1992.
Justice R. Basanth ruled after receiving a report from a chief judicial magistrate here stating that no progress has been made in the probe since Sep 4, when Justice V. Ramkumar ordered the Kerala unit of the CBI to take over the investigation.
The judge ordered that the Delhi headquarters of the investigative agency should hand over all the files related to the investigation of the murder to it’s Kerala unit.
The court came down heavily on the CBI, saying it was not above the law of the land.
Sister Abhaya, a resident of Pious X Hostel near here, was found dead March 27, 1992.
The CBI concluded in November 1996 that the death was a homicide but the murderer remained untraced. The Kerala Police had earlier termed the case a suicide.
Three CBI teams have failed to crack the mystery behind Abhaya’s death.
The CBI has been saying that evidence in the case had been destroyed during earlier investigations by the state police.
The case ignited public interest again in April last year after a newspaper reported that Abhaya’s medical reports were tampered with at the Chemical Examiners Laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram.