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ShareThiruvananthapuram: Three years after his daughter was buried as a sinner, AM Kuruvilla's quest to redeem her name has borne fruit. On Sunday, her body was buried in their family vault at Jerusalam Marthoma Church in Kottayam with due honour.
Ansu, 27, the elder daughter of Kuruvilla, was found hanging from a window grill in her husband's Hyderabad apartment on June 18, 2006. She was denied an ordinary Christian burial as it was believed she had committed suicide, a sin in the church's view, and was buried at the Marthoma Church cemetery at Ramachandrapuram with a service meant for sinners. Her father's repeated pleas fell on deaf ears.
From then on, it was a long battle for Kuruvilla. His son-in-law insisted it was a suicide and the police played it down as a "suspicious death", but Kuruvilla andhis family believed otherwise.
Kuruvilla's ordeal started after his trip to Hyderabad to celebrate Ansu's sixth wedding anniversary. He was seen off to Chennai by Ansu a few hours before her death on June 18, 2006. The next afternoon, he got a call from his son-in-law Ribu John Varughis informing him that Ansu had committed suicide.
"They (the police) gave a clean chit to her husband even after seeing the body in a kneeling position, with the hair covering her face, one of her legs on a suitcase and the other positioned awkwardly, the insufficient length and the unusual knot of the duppatta and the main door latched from outside..." Ansu's sister Reba wrote in a blog created to help the family's fight for justice.
The post-mortem report, made available nine days after the funeral, described an injury on Ansu's head and recommended a police investigation. Kuruvilla then approached the State Human Rights Commission to direct the church to let him carry the mortal remains of his daughter to his hometown and bury it properly.
Subsequent crime branch investigations pointed to a dowry death. Ribu was arrested but later let off on bail. When Ansu's family saw the probe heading nowhere, they sought a CBI investigation. The agency's Chennai unit took over the case from the Andhra Pradesh crime branch in October 2008.
Battle half-won, Kuruvilla is now waiting for the guilty to be brought to book.
