Thiruvananthapuram, May 22, 2020: The head of Kerala Police’s Crime Branch has returned the report of a team that probed the death of a novice nun in the southern Indian state.
Tomin J Thachankary, Additional Director General of Police, on May 21 sought several clarifications in the probe team’s report on the death of Divya P John. Thachankary rejected his agency’s report that found no foul play in the death.
The 21-year-old woman’s body was found on May 7 in the well of the Baselian Convent of the Syro-Malankara Catholic church at Paliyekkara near Thiruvalla in the Pathanamthitta district, some 120 km north of the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram.
The report was filed by Crime Branch Ernakulam Inspector General Gopesh Agarwal.
Kerala State Police Chief Loknath Behera on May 12 asked the Crime Branch to conduct a preliminary probe on the death. The decision to refer the case to the Crime Branch was taken on the basis of a complaint lodged by human rights activist Jomon Puthenpurackal, who is also the convener of Abhaya Case Action Council.
Abhaya was a Catholic nun whose body was also found on March 27, 1992, in the well of a convent in Kottayam.
Divya’s death evoked the memory of the hitherto unresolved demise of Sister Abhaya in comparable circumstances in a convent at the Pius X convent in Kottayam in 1992.
Agarwal said Divya had committed suicide. He also said investigators had found no truth in the allegations raised by Puthenpurackal. The IG said the probe was on the right track and it would shed light on whether anybody had abetted the suicide.
Thachankary, who vetted the report, has ordered a further inquiry.
There will be many suicide persons living yet without being taken notice of as are silenced. Be it convents or families, in civil society. And where can find truth without manipulation as long as there is authority subject, sup erior inferior, minister ministered. Most often the victim is condmed till death by those have power. When the victim raise voice for right they are silenced by threat to life or make choice to obey whatever the authorities say or take dispensation. Have thine own wY is the choice left for satisfaction to continue life.
Abhaya’s case has taken 28 years and it is still not concluded. God alone knows how many years Divya’s case will take! Meanwhile, some more nuns or novices could be on the “waiting list” for mysterious deaths.