Additional Director General of Police, Crime Branch, Tomin J. Thachankary on Thursday rejected his agency’s report that there was no foul play in the death of Divya P. John, a 21-year-old novice, at a convent in Thiruvalla.
The novice was found dead in a well at the Basilian convent of the Syro-Malankara Church at Paliyekkara. Her 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.
The Inspector General of Police, Crime Branch, Kochi, said Divya had committed suicide. He said investigators had found no truth in the allegations raised by Jomon Puthenpurackal, social activist and complainant in the Sister Abhaya case. The IG said the probe was on the right track and it would shed light on whether anybody had abetted the suicide. Mr Thachankary, who vetted the report, has ordered a further inquiry.
