THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even after the CBI broke the narrative built by the accused that Abhaya case is suicide and the accused got arrested, they even attempted for delaying the trial and the verdict. After CBI submitted charge sheet in Ernakulam chief judicial magisterial court on 2009 July 17, the accused also approached the court seeking to acquit them and they also submitted release plea. The subsequent court proceedings extended up to nine years.

On March 7, 2018, Thiruvananthapuram CBI court rejected the release plea of first accused father Thomas Kottur and third accused sister Steffi although the court set free father Jose Puthrikayil. He was acquitted on the basis of the reason that in the testimony of night watchman Chellama Das given against him, the concerned date is not mentioned. Chellama Das in his testimony has said that he saw father Jose Puthrikayil jumping over the wall of the convent at 11 pm night and walking towards the well and saw him coming back at 5 am. But the date was not mentioned in his testimony. As Chellama Das died on 2014 February 28, further trial on him could not be conducted.

The appeal filed in the Supreme Court by the accused against the verdict of the lower court to take part in the trial proceedings were also rejected by the apex court. When the trial proceedings began on 2019 August 26, the next attempt was to delay the trial proceedings citing the pandemic. As the high court also rejected this plea, from October 20 onwards the trial proceedings restarted in the CBI court.