2 killed, 8 injured as Volvo Bus hits Lorry..

Two people, including a deputy tehsildar of Palakkad district, were killed and eight persons were injured when a Volvo bus in which they were traveling hit a lorry on National Highway 47, near Edapally, here early today. Police said the deceased were identified as Vijay Chandran (54), Deputy tehsildar in Palakkad district, and Bhuvana Chandran Pillai, (49), an official with the state excise department. Their bodies were sent to Ernakulam Medical Center and the Amirtha Institute of Medical Sciences, respectively. The two were sitting at the back of the bus, which was on a night run from Palakkad to Ernakulam, when the mishap occurred around 0120 hrs. The condition of the injured was not serious, police added.

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Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Thursday informed the assembly that the police has been told to maintain high alert across the state following terror attacks in Mumbai that began Wednesday night and left at least 101 people dead and 250 others injured. Achuthanandan said, There should be no reason for panic in the state in the wake of terror attacks that took place in Mumbai yesterday (Wednesday).

State Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters that there was high alert at the pilgrimage
centre of Sabarimala, where the peak season is on. “The police are doing their job there and are leaving nothing to chance,” said Balakrishnan. The police in Kochi have briefed the representatives of leading hotels to keep a vigil on people who want to take rooms. The police have reinforced security arrangements at railway stations and bus stations. Security personnel were on alert at the state borders.

The Kerala High Court Wednesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file all evidence that led to the arrest of two priests and a nun in the Sister Abhaya murder case. Justice R. Basanth, while hearing the three accused persons’ plea that the CBI illegally arrested them, asked the officials to separately file Thursday all the evidences in sequential format, highlighting the old and new evidences gathered against the three accused before and after their arrest.

A former police official who had prepared the inquest report of Sister Abhaya, a nun who was murdered in a Kerala convent in 1992, was found dead Tuesday near his home here, the police said.
V.V. Augustine, a former assistant sub-inspector of police, is reported to have slashed his wrist. In his suicide note, he held the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) responsible for his death, the police said. Abhaya, a resident of Pious X Hostel, was found dead in the well of the Kottayam convent March 27, 1992.
Augustine last year was subjected to the truth serum test by the CBI and was recently questioned by the investigating agency over allegations of destroying crucial evidence in the Abhaya murder case.
Varghese P. Thomas, former CBI deputy superintendent of police who first concluded that Abhaya was murdered, said that Augustine would probably be under heavy mental pressure since the investigation has reached a turning point.
“It was Augustine who had prepared the inquest report of Abhaya and there were several lapses in the report. Maybe he was under duress when he prepared the inquest report and now he probably felt that he would be arrested also,” said Thomas.
Augustine’s body was found near his residence Tuesday afternoon and a large team of police officials reached the place.
On Nov 19, the 13th team of the CBI set up to probe the case – after 12 earlier teams failed – arrested Father Jose Putarika, 56, a former Malayalam professor at a Kottayam college where Abhaya studied, Father Thomas Kottor, 61, the Diocesan chancellor of the Catholic Church at Kottayam, and Sister Seffi, who was a resident of the convent when the incident took place.
Last week the CBI sleuths questioned Archbishop Mathew Mulekattu for over two hours here to elicit more information about the murder of Sister Abhaya. A day earlier to that, it questioned retired bishop Kuriakose Kunnasery, who was the serving bishop when the murder took place.
The police officials said that Augustine’s body will be taken to the Kottayam Medical College Wednesday and till then the body would be left at the spot.
The CBI had concluded in November 1996 that Sister Abhaya’s death was a homicide but the murderer remained untraced. The Kerala police had earlier dismissed the case as suicide.

A total of 1,280 litres of spirit was seized and three persons arrested at Kasaragod today while the brew was smuggled into Kerala in two vehicles. On a tip off, Excise officials led by Inspector Joy Joseph intercepted a car and jeep after a chase and recovered the illicit brew at the Padannakkad railway gate near Kanhangad, Excise Department sources here said. The spirit, concealed in 20 pastic cans, were said to have been taken to Kannur and Thrissur, the sources said.