Sr Mary Ancy died of drowning, HC told

KOCHI: The State Government on Friday submitted before the Kerala High Court that no injury was noted on Sr Mary Ancy’s body and that her death occurred owing to drowning.Investigating officer M Radhakrishnan Nair made the submission based on the postmortem examination report.“No injury was noted indicative of any physical violence and the reference in the postmortem certificate are changes which happened as a result of drowning and the impact of some allergy and infection.The doctor gives the opinion that the death is owing to drowning,” he said.The officer submitted the report on a petition filed by Mathai Philip, father of the nun, alleging that the investigation so far has neither been effective nor impartial.The court had earlier directed the state government to file the progress report on the probe into the mystery surrounding the death of Sr Mary Ancy of Holy Spirit Convent, Thiruvananthapuram.Sr Ancy was found dead in a water tank on the convent premises at Poonkulam in Thiruvananthapuram on August 17.The investigating officer further submitted that they had questioned and recorded the statements of 60 witnesses till now.Of these, 11 were re-questioned thrice and ten were re-questioned twice.He said that results of the scientific examination of material objects are awaited and scrutiny on the statements given by witnesses, neighbours, friends and relatives are being continued.“We questioned Appu, Sasi, Santhosh Kumar and they stated that they had noticed two people - Vijayan and Eugine - around 5.30 am on August 17 in the church compound.The two were also then questioned.They, however, stated that they went to the church at 7.30 am to water the newly-constructed pillars of the church.These statements were being deeply verified for their veracity,” he said.