Representative Image ANI | Updated: Jan 19, 2021 23:49 IST
Kochi (Kerala) [India], January 19 (ANI): The Kerala High Court has agreed to hear the appeal moved by Father Thomas Kottoor challenging the trial court verdict convicting him for the murder of Sister Abhaya.
A Division Bench of Justices K Vinod Chandran and MR Anitha admitted Father Kottoor s appeal.
In his appeal, Father Kottoor has submitted that the trial court s judgment is based on unconnected story circumstances culled out from unreliable solitary witnesses. The trial and conviction of the accused by the court below in all respects are vitiated by grave illegalities and irregularities.
Kottoor, along with Sister Sephy, a nun, were convicted on December 23, 2020, by a CBI Court, Thiruvananthapuram for the murder of 19-year-old nun Sister Abhaya. Thereafter, they were sentenced to imprisonment for life.
Balachandran Chullikkadu, poet
This Christmas, Kerala is celebrating a reformed thief who is being equated with God’s signature and who has emerged holier than some of the men who wear the cloth.
Raju, then a petty thief, faced a difficult choice 28 years ago.
If he testified against the suspects in the high-profile murder of a nun in a Kerala convent, he would have to incriminate himself by confessing he had been at the site to steal.
The choice he made in 1992 has now helped nail the priest and nun who killed Sister Abhaya and turned him into the toast of Kerala.
The evidence that nailed Sister Abhaya s killers 28 years later
On Tuesday, catholic priest Father Thomas Kottoor and nun Sister Sephy guilty were found guilty of murdering Sister Abhaya 28 years ago in the St Pius convent in Kerala s Kottayam.
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UPDATED: December 24, 2020 08:47 IST
Sister Abhaya was murdered in 1992 and the case has been going on for 28 years.
The 229-page judgment in the Sister Abhaya case has confirmed that the catholic nun was attacked with an intention to kill .
On Tuesday, catholic priest Father Thomas Kottoor and nun Sister Sephy guilty were found guilty of murdering Sister Abhaya 28 years ago in the St Pius convent in Kerala s Kottayam.
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Visual from the hospital where both accused persons were taken for medical checkup before shifting to jail. (Photo/ANI)
Kerala: Priest, nun found guilty in 28-year-old Sister Abhaya case ANI | Updated: Dec 23, 2020 08:31 IST
Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], December 23 (ANI): After 28 years the special CBI court here on Tuesday pronounced the verdict in Sister Abhaya case that both accused Fr. Thomas Kottoor and Sr. Sephy are guilty.
After the verdict, the nun broke down, while the priest on his way to jail shouted from the police vehicle that he is innocent .
The CBI court found Fr. Thomas Kottoor guilty of murder (IPC 302), causing disappearance of evidence of the offence, or giving false information to screen offender (IPC 202) and house-trespass in order to commit an offence (IPC 449) while Sr. Sephy was found guilty of murder and causing disappearance of evidence.
Sister Abhaya murder case: 28 years after killing 19-year-old, Kerala priest and nun get life imprisonment
Father Thomas Kotoor and Sister Sephy was granted life imprisonment for murdering Sister Abhaya, whose dead body was found inside a well. CBI court pronounces verdict in the sister Abhaya murder case; holds both accused Fr Thomas Kottoor & nun Sr Sephy as guilty (Image Source: ANI)
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Updated: Dec 23, 2020, 06:59 PM IST
In a March 1992 case, a special court of the CBI on Wednesday sentenced life imprisonment to a priest and a nun for the murder of a 19-year-old Sister Abhaya. This crime had been a part of Kerala s news cycle ever since the Catholic nun s body was found inside a well at a convent in Kottayam on March 27, 1992.