Mystery deaths at Christian prayer centre

Organiser,2007 Issues > June 24, 2007


Special Report

Mystery deaths at Christian prayer centre
Kerala High Court orders probe
By S. Chandrasekhar

Sister Abhaya, a 21-year-old nun, was found dead in the well of Sr. Pious X Convent in Kottayam on 27th March 1992. Although church authorities and Police (It was Congress rule in Kerala and Christians had great political clout) tried to picture it as a case of suicide, the local people objected to it.

A perfect combination of money, social, political police and administrative power. Christ feasted on bread and wine to show his oneness with his followers but here church high-ups are enjoying the flesh and blood of the poor girls who are forced to become nuns due to poverty.

Following the late Pope John Paul II?s clarion call for ?harvesting of crosses and souls across Asia?, his followers in Kerala are not-only harvesting but feasting on young girls who leave their hearth and homes to follow Christ?s way. Innumerable are the Christian girls, who become nuns and sisters and fall prey to the sexual machinations of the male higher-ups.

Many of them are raped and killed, with not a question asked, since, such is the power of the Christian hierarchy in Kerala?A perfect combination of money, social, political police and administrative power. Christ feasted on bread and wine to show his oneness with his followers, but here church high-ups are enjoying the flesh and blood of the poor girls who are forced to become nuns due to poverty.

Sister Abhaya, a 21-year-old nun, was found dead in the well of Sr. Pious X Convent in Kottayam on March 27, 1992. Although church authorities and Police (It was Congress rule in Kerala and Christians had great political clout) tried to picture it as a case of suicide, the local people objected to it. The body was sent for postmortem and chemical examination. Later the activities of Local Action Committee and intervention of human rights activist Joemon Puthenpurakkal took this case to the Crime Branch. The local police destroyed valuable close-range photographs taken of Sr. Abhaya which displayed injuries, nail marks, strangulation marks etc.

The CBI case was handled by honest Dy. SP Varghese P. Thomas. He infused blood into the luke-warm investigation. He questioned Father Kotoor and Sr. Nirmala who, public felt, were behind the murder. He brain-mapped fifteen suspects and when he was about to brain-map Fr. Kotoor, he got orders from his S.P. Thiagarajan to stop investigations. The contention of Joemon and the action committee is that Sr. Abhaya who came out at 3.00 am to drink water and go to the toilet saw Fr. Kotoor (who is a past master in misusing nuns) having sexual relations with the Mother of the Convent. To silence her, she was murdered and thrown to the well to show it as suicide. Later due to non-co-operation from Police and colleagues and intense pressure on him from higher-ups, politicians and church to make it a suicide, the honest Varghese P. Thomas quit his job in 1994, when he had still 10 years service. The story is that the Congress and Christian leaders exerted pressure on Narasimha Rao and, then, CBI Director Vijayarama Rao to exert a carrot and stick policy towards Varghese. The upright man quit praying God to bring out the truth.

Now thirteen years after his prayers, media reports have brought out evidences which has electrified the case?s speed.

The New Indian Express (legacy of legendary Arun Shourie) brought startling revelations that Sr. Abhaya was not only killed but raped and killed! Also the chemical examination pointed to Abhaya being raped before murder. The high-ups had used their clout at the chief chemical laboratory at the Government Forensic Lab with the result there were four over writing in the original lab book. Thus a rape was buried underground and a false laboratory chemical examination report given to Police and CBI. The Trivandrum and Ernakulam Magistrates Shri S. Soman and Shri P.D. Sarangadharan have ordered arrest of the chemical examiners and production of original lab book. They also ordered CBI to speed up investigations. In a twist to the case, the forensic professor of Kottayam Medical College has informed CBI that the post-mortem report of Sr. Abhaya is missing from the bound book of 100 post-mortem reports?99 reports available and one torn off! Even now somebody is pulling strings to water down the murder of poor nun Abhaya! But Jeomon Puthenpuakkal and retired CBI Dy. S.P. are prepared to go to any extent to bring out the truth and expose the unholy Christian lust for rape and murder of a 21 years old.

On the petition of a woman who was raped and was witness to several being raped and killed, the Kerala High Court had several months before, ordered a probe on the ?Christian Divine Retreat Centre? at Muringoor near Thrissur. The Special Investigation Team headed by I.G.P. Vinson M. Paul stumbled upon murder, loot, rape and drug abuse in the course of the investigation. The huge retreat centre with 14-foot concrete walls and huge buildings spread over four-acre land is a township steeped in mystery. Such is the money and political power of the centre that they have a separate railway station and trains stop there.

The SIT found that there were 974 unnatural deaths in the centre in the past few years. Bodies are being disposed of without post-mortem or informing relatives. Patients with no mental illness are given psychotropic drugs and kept in forced confinements. Iron-gated cells exist there. The medical wing is functioning without proper licenses. The cash and ornaments of the dead and visiting people are looted. Allegations are there that the people are made drug addicts by forcibly injecting drugs. It is said that women are raped even by Fathers. The centre also indulges in ?FERA? violations, inclusion of extremists and terrorists in voters? list and getting grants from central government giving false information.

In short, as per the words of Vilson M. Paul, I.G.P., the whole centre is shrouded in mystery, where devotees don?t have free access and are in a prison-like atmosphere. SIT has taken criminal cases against the Director, Father George Panakkal, Father Mathew Thundathil and eight others for murder, rape, etc.

The CPM and Congress may be in opposite poles in Kerala, but both the Congress Leader of Opposition Oommen Chandy and the CPM State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan went to the centre and expressed solidarity with the murderers and rapists. They attacked police investigations and charged them with atrocities. Such is the power of Xian vote banks!

The High Court and Supreme Court have struck down demands to stop investigations, filed by the centre.

The BJP State President P.K. Krishna Das has said that the centre is functioning like an underworld and is indulging in rape, loot and murder. He called for sealing of the centre in the light of the startling revelations.

The Christian organisations and educational institutions, which made false charges of rape against Sangh Parivar at Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh and organised nation-wide protests, do not raise an accusing finger in Kerala when such open atrocities take place.