The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Kerala [Images] government on a petition challenging a high court order directing a high-level inquiry against a person who had filed a Public Interest Litigation seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the murder of Sister Abhaya.

Jomon Puthenpurackal, who had filed the PIL on the mysterious death of Sister Abhaya, has appealed against the order of the Kerala high court directing the state police to probe his source of income, background and reasons for raising the issue.

A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan sought a reply from the state government and CBI which is probing the case.

The body of Abhaya, a nun at the St Pius convent, Kottayam, was found in the well of the convent on March 27, 1992.

The CBI, which took over the investigation on March 29, 2003, filed three closure reports saying though it was a case of murder, the culprit could not be found out. However, the High Court on September 4 had come down heavily on CBI over the handling of the murder case.

It had observed that the agency was "still a prisoner of those who wield political and bureaucratic power" and directed that the probe be handed over by the Delhi [Images] unit of the probe agency to its Kochi counterpart.

"There is every reason to suspect that an unseen hand is at work to jettison the truth," the high court had said while disposing of a petition filed by Sister Abhaya's father, M Thomas, seeking a factual report on the investigation by the CBI and the subsequent narco-analysis test of three suspects.