All that now awaits K.Raju is just the reality of life. He is a much relieved man.
A nightmare that had haunted not just him but his family for 28 years is finally over. Sister Abhaya, a 19-year-old nun found dead in a well on the premises of the St. Pius X convent in Kottayam town, has finally received justice, he believes.
“I am saying this as her father, my child has finally got justice and I am happy now,” a visibly exalted Raju told mediapersons soon after the CBI court found the two accused in the case guilty of murdering the nun.
While the murder confounded investigators at different levels for generations, Raju, alias Adakka Raju, a former petty thief who was arraigned as a witness in the case, never gave up hope. Having broken into the convent to steal something on the morning of Abhaya’s death, he was tortured for days together to own up the crime by police officers.
The torture, according to him, was followed by a flurry of promises, varying from a job offer to his wife to a huge sum as compensation to the family. But he did not budge, so sure that the truth will be out one day.
“I was offered crores, but I did not take anything. I still live in a colony but happy with my family,” he says.
When the trial began last year, Raju told the court about the pressure exerted by the Crime Branch to “confess to the crime that he never committed”. And it was yet another statement from Raju that he had seen Fr. Jose Poothrukayil, Fr. Thomas M. Kottoor, and Sister Sephy climbing the stairway at the rear of the convent in the wee hours of the day the crime was committed that proved crucial in the investigation.
“Finally, my child has got justice. I also have daughters and nothing should happen to them. Losing one’s child after taking care of them for a life involves pain beyond explanation,” Raju says.
