Thiruvananthapuram, Thursday, 02 September 2010: The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court, here, on Thursday posted to September 23rd, the hearing regarding the allegation that the chemical examination report in the Sister Abhaya murder case was tampered with. The case has been deferred by Chief Judicial Magistrate Cheriyan Vargheese.

The final hearing regarding the charge sheet to be filed against Chief Chemical examiner R. Geetha and Analyst M. Chithra, the staff of Chemical Examination Laboratory would be considered by the Court on the new date.

Earlier report

A report in 2007 stated that the original chemical examination report of the vaginal swab and vaginal smear of Abhaya has been found to be tampered with. The manuscript of the workbook report from the Chemical Examination Laboratory shows over-writing at four places. Using a whitener and different ink, the word “not” has been added to the word “detected”, so as to contradict the result for testing semen detection in vagina. Varghese P Thomas, who was the first to point to murder, said the post mortem and lab reports had ruled out rape, leaving no scope for suspicions on the veracity of the report.

A copy of the “tampered” work register was leaked to the media following which several news reports suggesting foul play in the sensational case appeared in the press. Chief Judicial Magistrate S. Soman took cognizance of the serious nature of the reports and ordered the police to seize the original copy of the work register.

CBI had later investigated the register tampering case.