‘PMO tried to cover up nun’s murder in 1992’

Former Deputy Superintendent of Police of the CBI Verghese P Thomas said that Narasimha Rao’s office had exerted immense pressure on the agency to cover up the Sister Abhaya murder case, reports Ramesh Babu.

Deposing before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Thiruvananthapuram, former Deputy Superintendent of Police of the Central Bureau of Investigation Verghese P. Thomas said on Friday that former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao’s office had exerted immense pressure on the agency to cover up the Sister Abhaya murder case.

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Sister Abhaya, 21, was found dead in the well of Pius X Convent in Kottayam in March 1992. The post-mortem report suggested that she was raped, strangulated and thrown into a well. The accused included a priest and two nuns.

Thomas said during his cross-examination that the PMO had pressurised Superintendent of Police Tygarajan and him to write off the case as a suicide. Thomas said Narasimha Rao was under tremendous pressure from certain state Congress leaders to have the case hushed up. Thomas said he had to face severe harassment for conducting a fair and free probe.

“At the initial stage itself I had collected clinching evidence of murder,” Thomas told HT, adding he was forced to quit the CBI.