Two lab officials to be charged in Abhaya case

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thiruvananthapuram Chief Judicial Magistrate Cherian Varghese Tuesday ordered two government officials to be formally charged for allegedly tampering with medical reports in Sister Abhaya's death.The order to charge sheet R. Geetha, the then chief chemical examiner at the Chemical Examiners Laboratory here, and her assistant D. Chithra comes in the wake of chemical tests proving that the work book of the medical records was tampered with in eight places.Sister Abhaya, a resident of the Pious X convent hostel near Kottayam, was found dead in the convent well in 1992. Three people were later arrested and the hearing in the case is continuing.Geetha had done the chemical examination for the case in 1992.This case took a turn when an English daily in 2007 came out with evidence showing that the medical reports of Abhaya had been tampered with.According to the report, the results of the vaginal swab were positive for semen and spermatozoa. It was later found corrected using a whitener and the result rewritten as negative.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in November 2008 arrested Father Jose Putarika, a former professor at the Kottayam college where Abhaya studied, Father Thomas M. Kottor, the diocesan chancellor of the Catholic Church at Kottayam, and Sister Seffi, a resident of the convent.The three accused got bail in January 2009.Reacting to the court order, Abhaya's father Thomas said that more truths will now be revealed."I knew then itself there was a concerted attempt to hide the truth," he said.