I believe that no woman can forget her first labor pain ever in her lifetime. I remember the novel experience and process of birthing vividly and bringing a beautiful soul into this world. My life was about to change with the promotion into motherhood. It was the most memorable and happiest day of my life, but on the same day, 70 km away from my place, someone was getting brutally murdered. It was a strange coincidence, the very reason for my keen interest in observing the murder mystery of Sister Abhaya and the unfolding of its case files.
Sister Abhaya was a pre-degree student of BCM College for Women, in Kottayam City, Kerala. It was another coincidence. I studied in BCM College for my pre-degree, equivalent to the 2-year course of pre-university or the 11th and 12th class before the graduate studies. I was also a hosteller of the BCM college hostel located adjacent to the ‘convent’ where Abhaya was murdered and the ‘well’ where her dead body was found.
I wanted to pursue a psychology degree and wanted to opt for psychology as the main elective while studying at BCM. But my parents and teachers insisted that mathematics should be my main elective, as I secured good math grades. Abhaya was a psychology student and her convicted killer was a psychology professor in BCM. The thought that he (one of the murderers) would have been my teacher if I would have opted for psychology gives me chills even today. Almost a coincidence !!!
So, Who was Sister Abhaya? And why was she killed?
Those who haven’t read about that horrendous crime in the news, allow me to give a brief elucidation of the crime that happened in the early morning hours of 27th March 1992.
Sister Abhaya resided at St.Pius Xth Convent, run by the Knayaya Catholic Archeparchy in Kottayam, a district of Kerala, India. Her family was of lower economic stature at that time and she decided to become one of God’s angels. She was a 19-year-old student of BCM College.
On that awful day, she got up early to study for her exams and went down to the kitchen to fetch some chilled water from the refrigerator. There she allegedly saw something which she was not supposed to see. Her psychology teacher and a priest Father Thomas Kottoor and another priest and teacher Father Jose Poothurikkayil and an inmate and nun of the same convent Sister Sephy were indulged in some sexual activities near or inside the kitchen. Abhaya got startled seeing them in a compromising position as she was not expecting anyone there at 4 o’clock in the morning.
Both the priests allegedly strangled Abhaya while Sister Sephy allegedly attacked her with a hand axe. Then the three of them dragged her body to the nearby well inside the convent compound and dumped her in it. At first, a missing case was filed as no one knew where Abhaya had vanished. Later the body was found inside the well, and an unnatural death was reported.
The investigation and verdict.
The Church and some of the high profile religious and political leaders did not want the salacious activities which involved the priests and nuns to come out in public. Sr. Abhaya’s heartbreaking story went through many melodramatic twists and turns, interruptions, narco analyses, creating tempestuous reactions from the general public. The staggering murder mystery was investigated and reinvestigated many times by different agencies such as local police, crime branch department, CBI and was plagued from start to end by manipulations, bribery, corruptions, bureaucracy and so on.
The alleged murderers did not show any remorse in the due course of almost three decades taken by the legal system to come to a conclusion and judgment. This could have been because of the blind support from the church and religious leaders. While many witnesses turned hostile, a petty thief Adakka Raju, who didn’t break under the tremendous pressure of money and threats stuck to his testimony till the end. He happened to see the accused priests entering the convent in the early morning hours of the day of the murder.
The extent to hide the crime by the accused was remarkable in this case. The third accused Sister Sephy did a hymen –restoration procedure (Hymenoplasty) to prove that she was a virgin. The building where the crime took place was reconstructed under the pretext of restoration. It took years of commitment and persistence by a handful of individuals to turn the suicide theory into a homicide investigation and to the final verdict.
After 28 years, in December 2020, the verdict of the Abhaya murder case was released. Father Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy were given life sentences by a special court of CBI in Thiruvananthapuram. The second accused Father Jose Poothrikkayil was acquitted of the charges because of lack of evidence. There is a proverb that says ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. Did Sr. Abhaya get her justice? In the end, the truth found its way through verdict but Abhaya’s parents didn’t live enough to see the culprits getting punished.
‘Better Late Than Never’.
May Sister Abhaya and her parent’s souls rest in peace!!
Have you or anyone you know ever experienced such strange coincidences?? Let us know in the comments below!!
Written by Habeeba Waseem. Content Developer and Writer @mindsonfleek