KOCHI, SOUTH INDIA: SIXTEEN years after a nun's body was discovered in the well of a convent, two Catholic priests and a nun have been arrested for her murder - though a church spokesman proclaimed their innocence.

A vast crowd thronged the chief judicial magistrate's court on Wednesday and yells of "shame, shame" erupted as people elbowed each other to get a glimpse of the suspects.

All three had undergone a truth-serum test last year in Bangalore and have been remanded till Dec 2, reported the Indo-Asian News Service.

Father Jose Putarika, 56, was a Malayalam professor at Kottayam College where the victim, Sister Abhaya, studied. Father Thomas Kottor, 61, is the diocesan chancellor of the Catholic Church at Kottayam. Sister Seffi, 45, belonged to the same convent as Sister Abhaya, who was 21 when she died.

The magistrate warned the Central Bureau of Investigation, which has been under pressure to crack the case, against physical torture during interrogation.

Since the body of Sister Abhaya, a resident of Pious X Hostel near here, was found in the well of Kottayam Convent on March 27, 1992, 13 CBI investigative teams have probed the case.

A breakthrough came after a witness, Mr Sanju Mathew, said he saw Father Thomas' twowheeler near the scene then.

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