Balachandran Chullikkadu, poet
This Christmas, Kerala is celebrating a reformed thief who is being equated with God’s signature and who has emerged holier than some of the men who wear the cloth.
Raju, then a petty thief, faced a difficult choice 28 years ago.
If he testified against the suspects in the high-profile murder of a nun in a Kerala convent, he would have to incriminate himself by confessing he had been at the site to steal.
The choice he made in 1992 has now helped nail the priest and nun who killed Sister Abhaya and turned him into the toast of Kerala.