Updated: December 22, 2020 8:25:08 pm
Raju (pictured) had testified to IWC investigating officers that he had seen Father Kottoor and Father José Puthrukkayil on the convent grounds in the early morning hours of the same day the sister’s body was removed. Abhaya of the well.
Raju believes that it was the will of God that led him into the Pius X convent compound in Kottayam in the early hours of March 27, 1992. At that time, a petty thief had entered the compound to steal anything that would have put their hands. Instead, what he saw that day made him a primary witness in the murder of 19-year-old Catholic nun, Sister Abhaya, one of Kerala’s most sensational criminal cases.
On Tuesday, a special IWC court in Thiruvananthapuram found the first defendant, Father Thomas Kottoor, and the third accused Sister Sephy guilty of murdering Sister Abhaya by throwing her into a well and destroying evidence of the act. Raju, also known as Adakka Raju among the locals for his proclivity to steal arecanuts (adakka in Malayalam), was the third witness in the case, whose testimony during the trial paved the way for the defendant’s conviction. Ironically, many other witnesses, who had a clean disposition, denied their statements during the trial.
Raju had testified to CBI investigative officers that he had seen Father Kottoor and Father José Puthrukkayil on the convent grounds in the early hours of the morning on the same day that Sister Abhaya’s body was pulled from the well. Father Puthrukkayil, initially charged by the IWC as the second defendant in the case, was released by the trial court in 2018 for lack of evidence.
On Tuesday, after the final ruling came out, Raju said he was “very happy” with the court’s decision.
“I am very happy today. Perhaps it was God’s will that I was present there at that time. Many people, over the years, have approached me with millions of rupees in exchange for changing my testimony. I have removed not a single paisa. I still live in the same neighborhood, on the same 3 cents of land, “he told reporters.
He also said that the state police, especially the criminal branch, which investigated the case before the CBI, had tried many times to charge him with homicide, citing his presence on the premises that day. He alleged that he was tortured by various agents to change his testimony.
Speaking of Sister Abhaya, he said: “She was a daughter to me. I always knew I would get justice and today it happened. I’m so happy to be able to drink tonight. “
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