Kochi, Thursday, September 04, 2008: In a sensational turn around the Kerala High Court today directed the CBI Kerala wing to investigate the Sister Abhaya murder case. The case will be soon handed over to CBI Kochi unit. Stating that the CBI appeared to be under pressure from politicians and officials, Justice V. Ramkumar gave a clean chit to the Bangalore-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) staff in the case.

The CBI had stated in court earlier that the CFSL had tampered with a CD on the narco-analysis tests conducted on two priests and a nun last year to unravel the mystery behind Sister Abhaya’s death.

According to the judge, the present CBI investigation led by Deputy Superintendent of Police R.K. Aggarwal had misled the court. He asked for action against the official but said it should wait till the new investigation gets over.

For the last month, the judge has been lashing out at the manner in which the CBI team was conducting the probe - the CBI said they had only one CD of the narco analysis tests, but CFSL told the court they had given three CDs to the investigating agency.

The court has asked CBI to ensure that the new team should have incorruptible officers who knew Malayalam.

The Court has also asked the Chief Judicial Magistrate to give guidelines, which could help the investigation.