THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sister Sephy and Fr Thomas Kottoor, the two found guilty in the Sister Abhaya murder case, have been sentenced to life. The two were found guilty by the Thiruvananthapuram CBI court yesterday. Fr Kottoor has been sentenced to double life term.

The verdict came 28 years after the body of the nun was found in a well of her convent hostel in Kottayam. A fine of Rs 5 lakh have been imposed on them. Fr Kottoor has to pay an additional fine of Rs one lakh.

The quantum of sentence was pronounced by CBI court judge K Sanal Kumar.

Father Kottoor (69) and Sister Sephy (55) were found guilty of murder (Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code), Section 449 (house trespassing to commit a crime) and Section 201 (destroying evidence) and other sections of the IPC.

19-year-old Sister Abhaya, a plus-two student, was found dead in the well of the Pious X Convent in Kottayam in 1992. The case was initially dismissed as a suicide by the state police and crime branch, but the CBI later concluded that it was murder. In 2009, the CBI charge-sheeted Catholic priest Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy in the case.

In 1993, the case went to the CBI after a human rights activist took the matter to the court. In its first report in 1996, the CBI said it was a suicide case but a year after it said in its second report that it was a homicide.

In 2008, the CBI submitted its third report charging two Catholic priests, Father Thomas Kottoor and Father Jose Poothrukayil, and nun, Sister Sephy with murder, destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy and other charges. According to the charge sheet, Sister Abhaya was killed as she was a witness to intimate contacts between Kottoor, another Father, Jose Poothrikkayil, and Sephy.

She was attacked with an axe before being dumped in the well, the central agency claimed.

In 2009, all three of them were granted bail. The trial of the case began in 2019 after 27 years.

One of the main witnesses in the case was a small-time robber Adakka Raju. He was on the premises of the convent for stealing arecanuts when the incident took place. He reportedly told CBI officers that he saw two priests and a nun at the convent around the time of Abhaya’s death. He later said he was promised many things to own up to the crime and change his statement but he stuck to his testimony.