Sister Abhaya, a 21-year-old Catholic nun, was found dead in a well at the St Pius X convent in Kottayam on March 27, 1992. Kerala Police initially called it a suicide and closed the case but after public protests and a series of legal battles, the high court handed it over to the CBI in 1993. The case dragged on till the central agency arrested three people, Fr Thomas Kotoor, Fr Jose Poothrikayil and nun, Sister Sephy, in November 2008. It took the CBI special court another 12 years to pronounce a verdict, which it did in December 2020 when it awarded life imprisonment to Fr Kotoor and Sister Sephy (Poothrikayil was let off citing insufficient evidence).