Surprisingly, on 30.12.1993, Mr. Varghese P. Thomas resigned
from the service of CBI and from the investigation of Abhaya's
death. He had seven more years in service to retire. Mr. Varghese
P.Thomas was a brilliant and honest police officer and for his
meritorious services he was awarded the prestigious President's
National Medal. He had finally arrived at the conclusion that
Abhaya's death was a clear case of MURDER and he had recorded it as
such in the CBI Diary. Subsequently on 19.1.1994, he called a
special press conference in Cochin and announced that he had
resigned from CBI as his conscience did not permit him to comply
with a strong directive given by his superior officer, Mr. V.
Thyagarajan, the then Superintendent of CBI Cochin Unit, who had
asked Mr. Varghese P. Thomas to record the death of Abhaya as
SUICIDE in the CBI Diary. With this press conference, the case of
Sr.Abhaya caught media attention all over the country and the
matter was strongly debated in the pa
rliament as well as in the State Assembly on several
occasions.
The Action Council filed another Writ petition in the Kerala High
Court asking the court to remove Mr. V. Thyagarajan from Cochin
Unit of the CBI as well as from the investigation of Abhaya's
death. Further on 3.6.1994 all the MPs from Kerala State jointly
submitted a passionate petition to K. Vijaya Rama Rao, the Director
of the CBI requesting him to disallow Mr. Thyagarajan to continue
in the Abhaya's murder case. As a result Mr. M.L. Sharma, the Joint
Director of the CBI, was given charge of the investigation into
Abhaya's death.
The role of Mr. V. Thyagarajan in the distortion of Abhaya's case
was apparent in the High Court when Mr. Varghese P. Thomas produced
an original copy of a report sent by Mr. V. Thyagarajan to the
Joint Director of the CBI suggesting that further investigation
into the death of Sr. Abhaya should be dropped, despite the death
being recorded in the CBI Diary as MURDER by Varghese P.Thomas
after due consideration of the material facts of the case. As a
result, Mr. Thyagarajan was transferred to Chennai Unit of
CBI.
On the 7.4.1995, using a full-sized dummy of Sr. Abhaya, the CBI
made some experimental tests in the well where her corpse was
found. By that time, on 17.4.1995 Dr. S.K. Patak, the chief of the
Forensic Department of Saiman Singh Medical college, Jaipur and Dr.
Mahesh Varma, former chairperson of Anatomy Section submitted their
formal expert report to the CBI investigation team to the effect
that Sr. Abhaya's death was clearly MURDER. Subsequently the CBI
declared that the killers would soon be arrested.
But nothing happened. No-one was arrested. The investigation itself
was limping without a clear aim before then. Hence the Action
Council staged a dharna (protest meeting) in front of the CBI
office at Cochin on 27.11.1995 against the callousness of the CBI
and its lack of orientation. Later on 18.3.1996 another big rally
was organised under the leadership of the former chief minister of
the state, Mr. E.K. Nayanar, in front of the state secretariate, at
Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. Again on 1.7.1996
the Action Council filed a petition in the High Court challenging
the inaction of the CBI. The High Court passed an order in the
petition on 20.8.1996 directing the CBI to complete its
investigation in three months from the date of the order. In the
meantime, the CBI declared an award of Rs 300,000 to whomsoever
gives dependable evidence in the case of Abhaya.
On 12.10.1996 all the MPs from Kerala State together visited the
Prime Minister and jointly pleaded with him to expedite the CBI
investigation into the death of Abhaya. However, on 6.12.1996 the
CBI filed a petition in the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court,
Ernakulam, Cochin seeking permission of the court to wind up its
investigation in the matter. In response to that, the father of
Sr.Abhaya, Mr. Thomas, filed a counter petition in the court on
18.1.1997 to dismiss the final report of the CBI and its
recommendation for closure of investigation.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) directed the CBI in its order
dated 20.3.1997 to re-investigate the case. The court in its order
strongly criticized the CBI for its loyalty and complicity to
certain vested interests to defeat the ends of justice and the
court observed that the CBI had not made party some very
significant persons who otherwise emerged in the facts of the case
quite evidently. The court also asserted its belief that the case
could have easily been established had there been an honest and
proper investigation. Further the court took very serious exception
to the role of the Crime Branch officers, mentioning Mr. K.T.
Michael by name for the distorted course of investigation from the
beginning.
The Action Council, again on 30.5.1997 filed a Public Interest
Litigation in the High Court of Kerala against the non-compliance
of the CJM's directive for re-investigation. The High Court in its
order directed the CBI to report back to the court the progress it
had made in the investigation in ten days from the date of the
order.
Having been satisfied of the failure and lack of interest on the
part of the CBI, the High Court directed suo moto the Director of
the CBI to appoint a special team from New Delhi to investigate the
matter. Thus Mr. P.D. Meena, the Superintendent of the CBI from New
Delhi and his team undertook a month-long investigation and
reported to the High Court. The CBI was satisfied that the death of
Abhaya was in fact MURDER. However, the CBI report said that due to
lack of evidence it was not possible to go further into the matter.
The High Court again on 28.9.1998 directed the CBI to file its
final report of the re-investigation on or before 12.10.1998.
There has been no progress in the matter till date. Altogether
there were five CBI inquiries into the case so far without any
tangible results. The CBI is convinced and the court has accepted
that Sr. Ahabya was murdered. The CJM has noted and criticised the
non-joinder of necessary parties. Everyone knows who are those
"necessary parties". But there has been not even an interrogation
of those persons until date.
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