By IANS,
Kochi : The Kerala High Court Thursday asked the Kerala unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to institute a fresh probe into the 1992 death of Abhaya, a nun whose body was found in the well of a convent near here.
Stating that the CBI appeared to be under pressure from politicians and officials, Justice V. Ramkumar gave a clean chit to the Bangalore-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL).
The CBI had stated in court earlier that the CFSL had tampered with a CD on the narco-analysis tests conducted on two priests and a nun last year to unravel the mystery behind Sister Abhaya’s death.
According to the judge, the present CBI investigation led by Deputy Superintendent of Police R.K. Aggarwal had misled the court. He asked for action against the official but said it should wait till the new investigation gets over.
For the last month, the judge has been lashing out at the manner in which the CBI team was conducting the probe – the CBI said they had only one CD of the narco analysis tests, but CFSL told the court they had given three CDs to the investigating agency.
The court has asked CBI to ensure that the new team should have incorruptible officers who knew Malayalam. The Ernakulam chief judicial magistrate has been asked to oversee further investigations in the case.
Sister Abhaya, a resident of Pious X Hostel near here, was found dead on 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 dismissed the case as suicide. Three previous 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.