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	Priests, Nun Charged with Murder 17 Years Ago The Peninsula (Qatar) July 18, 2009 http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News& subsection=India&month=July2009&file=World_News2009071881232.xml Thiruvananthapuram: After 17 years and probes by three agencies, a charge sheet has been filed against two priests and a nun for the murder of a teenage nun in Kerala. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed the charge sheet at a special court in Kochi yesterday, accusing the priests and nun of murdering Sister Abhaya, 18, an inmate of St Pius X Convent in Kottayam, on March 27, 1992. Fr Thomas M Kottoor is the first accused, Fr Jose Puthrukayil second accused and Sister Sephy, the third accused. Additional Sub Inspector V V Augustine, who committed suicide following the allegation of destroying evidence, is the fourth accused. But his name has been omitted. According to the CBI, one of the priests hit the nun on her head with a small axe and with the help of the other priest and Sister Sephy, dumped the unconscious victim in a well on the convent premises, as if to make it appear that the nun had jumped into the well and died of injuries from the fall. But the CBI corroborates the surgeon's report that the victim had drowned, although injuries inflicted on her would have led to her death. The charge sheet alleges that the motive for the crime was Sister Abhaya discovering a priest and Sister Sephy in a compromising position in the kitchen when she came down in the wee hours to have some water on the fateful day. She let out a scream, provoking assailants to silence her immediately. The other priest stood guard outside the kitchen. The charge-sheet has been based on narco-analysis disclosures by the accused at the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Bengaluru.
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