KOCHI: For 77-year-old Varghese P Thomas it was an emotional day on Tuesday as the news of the CBI Special Court finding Fr Thomas Kottoor and Sr Sephy guilty of murdering Sr Abhaya broke.
The former CBI officer, who is based in Pramadam near Pathanamthitta, was forced to take voluntary retirement from service when he had nearly 10 more years of service left following pressure from higher-ups as he had pursued the case to its natural culmination.
"I had an option to take a transfer to Madras (Chennai) but I chose to take the VRS because taking the transfer at that time would have given an impression that I had done something wrong," Varghese said, choking "out of happiness".
Varghese, a former DSP of CBI, Kochi, was the first officer who had found it was a case of murder.
However, he had to take voluntary retirement due to the pressure mounted by one of his senior officers who wanted to conceal the findings of the report submitted by Varghese stating that it was a case of murder and write it off as a suicide.
P Thyagarajan, former SP of CBI who was the superior of Varghese, was not ready to accept the findings of the team headed by Varghese.
On December 30, 1993, Varghese took the VRS when nine-and-a-half-years were remaining for his retirement.
"I had to pay a high price for that decision. Had I continued in service, I would have retired in the rank of DIG. The officers in my batch retired from DIG posts. However, I am happy as the court verdict has proved that I had carried out the investigation honestly," said a teary-eyed Varghese.
"These are tears of happiness. Finally, the truth has come out and I am least bothered about the quantum of sentence to be pronounced by the court against the guilty. As I was aware that the case was controversial, I carried out a deep investigation. It was with pure honesty that I probed the case and the court's verdict proved that I was right," he added.
Varghese, who leads a retirement life at his residence, lost his wife recently. He is survived by a son, who is a doctor in the UK, and a daughter based at Vadasserikkara in Pathanamthitta.