After the initial setback suffered in the form of two crucial witnesses turning hostile, the CBI prosecution in the Sister Abhaya case looks to be on firmer ground. Yet another witness, this time social worker Kalarkode Venugopalan Nair, has stuck to his original statement in the CBI Special Court in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
Last week, despite a sharp, withering and prolonged cross-examination by the defence lawyer B Raman Pillai that sought to expose him as evil incarnate, a small-time thief known as Adakka Raju did not waver from his sworn statement earlier that he had seen two men, including father Thomas Kottoor, on the night Sister Abhaya was found dead inside the well of St Pius X Convent on March 27, 1992. Raju was on the terrace of the convent around 3.30am, trying to steal the copper parts of the lightning conductor installed there, when he saw two men going up and down a ladder in a stealthy fashion.
On Monday, Kalarkode, the seventh witness in the case, too reiterated before the CBI Special Court what he had told the CBI a few years ago. He told the court on Monday that his antennae perked up on reading an article by noted criminologist James Wadakkanchery in a Malayalam daily. The year was 2008. “Wadakkanchery had argued in the article that narco analysis was unscientific. I found the timing of the article to be suspect. It came weeks before the main accused in Sister Abhaya's murder were to be subjected to narco analysis,” he told the CBI court.
He then called up the newspaper office to secure Wadakkancherry's number. “I was told that the number could be fetched from Father Kottoor who was at the Bishop's House. When I called up the Bishop's House I was told that father Kottoor was having a bath. I called up after some time and got Father Kottoor on the line. He said he knew me and asked me to come over for a chat,” Kalarkode said. He said he later realised that Wadakkanchery had strong links to the Bishop's House.
He told the court that he met Father Kottoor at a room on the left side of the Bishop's House, right after the entrance. “There was another person, too. I was told that he was in charge of Apna Desh (the official magazine of the Knanaya Church). It was only later, after the arrests, that I realised it was Jose Puthrikkayil,” Kalarkode said. (The High Court had let off Puthrikkayil for want of evidence. There was a witness statement that said that Puthrikkayil was seen climbing up the wall of the convent. However, this was some four days before the incident happened.)
According to Kalarkode, Father Kottoor had looked very agitated that day. “It was as if he knew that something bad was about to happen to him. He told me that the narco analysis was nothing but an attempt to arrest them,” Kalarkode said.
The court then asked Kalarkode to identify Fr Kottoor. He looked around the courtroom but couldn't spot Father Kottoor. “He was here last time but I don't see him today,” Kalarkode said. Fr Kottoor and Sister Sephy, the two accused in Sister Abhaya's murder, were in the room but were hidden as they were seated at the back, just behind the enclosure for the accused. The court asked them to stand up and soon Kalarkode identified Fr Kottoor. While Sister Sephy was in a nun's tunic and wimple, Fr Kottoor was in a long cotton jubba and cream trousers.
Kalarkode told the court that Fr Kottoor was so emotionally fragile that day in 2008 that he even confessed to the crime. “He pulled at his cassock and told me that he was a raw human being inside. I am not made of stone and iron, he told me.” Kalarkode stated that the priest admitted that he had a relationship with Sister Sephy.
When Kalarkode asked the priest to come clean on the issue, Fr Kottoor is said to have told him that it was not for him to decide. “It is not just about me but about the Church,” Fr Kottoor is said to have told Kalarkode.
The seventh witness then claimed that Fr Kottoor wanted him to meet top lawyer Janardhana Kurup to take up the narco analysis case for them. He was even given Rs 5,000 when he left the Bishop's House. (In his sworn 164 statement, Kalarkode has said that he had returned the amount. But this information was not provided to the CBI Special Court on Monday.) Kalarkode then claimed that Kurup had advised him not to take up the issue. “I too was not keen as Fr Kottoor had already confessed to the crime,” Kalarkode said.
Fr Kottoor is said to have even told him that the Church had paid money to campaign against narco analysis in various forums.
Kalarkode might not have taken up the question of narco analysis in court but a three-judge Supreme Court bench led by the then Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan had in 2011 ruled that narco analysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests are illegal and a violation of personal liberty.
The cross-examination of Kalarkode will be held on Tuesday (September 3) as senior defence lawyer Raman Pillai was absent.
The trial, which began on August 26, saw two crucial witnesses turning hostile. Sister Anupama, Abhaya's convent mate, disowned her earlier statement that she had seen Abhaya's footwear and headscarf, and an axe in the kitchen. However, the then constable M M Thomas, who was also cross-examined, said that he had seen the footwear, headscarf and the axe in the kitchen on the day Abhaya was found dead.
Sanju P Mathew, the fourth witness in the case, was the other person to turn hostile. He had then told the CBI that he had seen Fr Kottoor's scooter parked in front of the convent on the night of Sister Abhaya's death and also on the night before. Last week, in front of the CBI Special Court here, Sanju said he made that statement under duress.
