Father Thomas Kottoor, the priest convicted in the Sister Abhaya murder case, moved the Kerala High Court on Monday, challenging the verdict by the Special CBI court, Thiruvananthapuram, that had given him double life sentence.
Nearly three decades since the murder of Sister Abhaya, the special court on 22 December, found Father Tomas Kattoor and Sister Sephy, a priest and nun of the Catholic Church, guilty of murder in the case.
The case dates back to 27 March 1992, when Sister Abhaya, a Class 12 student, was found dead inside a well at the Pious X Convent in Kottayam, Kerala.
Initially, the case was ruled as a suicide by the local police and the crime branch but it was handed over to the CBI after several protests. According to the charge sheet, Abhaya was killed because she was witness to an alleged ‘immoral activity’ involving two priests and a nun. She was attacked with a blunt object before being dumped in the well, the CBI had claimed.
In his appeal, he has argued that the trial court's judgment is based on the "unconnected story circumstances culled out from unreliable solitary witnesses," reported Live Law. It is contented that the trial court has not truly quoted the evidence in the judgment.
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