Thiruvananthapuram: The verdict in the sensational and long-drawn-out Sister Abhaya case is set to be announced by the

the CBI Special Court here on December 22. The arguments by the prosecution and the defence which had been carrying out the cross-examination since November 3 were over on Thursday.

Sister Abhaya, a resident of Pius X convent in Kottayam in Kerala, was found dead in the well of the convent on March 27, 1992.

Initially, both the local police, the Crime Branch and the CBI had termed the death of the Pre-Degree student as suicide, but after activist Joemon Puthenpurackal formed an Action Council to pursue the case, a turnaround happened and the case was reopened and three arrests were made.

Fr Thomas Kottoor and Sister Sephy are the accused. A co-accused, Fr Jose Poothrukayil, was acquitted in early 2018. The latter was a former Malayalam professor at a Kottayam college where Abhaya studied.

Kottoor was the Diocesan chancellor of the Knanaya Catholic Church at Kottayam and Sr Seffi was a resident of the convent where the incident took place.

Former crime Branch SP, K.T. Michael, who was part of the investigation in the preliminary stage, was named as an accused early last year on charges of destroying evidence. However, he too was discharged in 2018 for lack of evidence.

In all there are 177 witnesses in this case that had rocked Kerala in the 1990s over its religious aspects.