Bangalore: Police officials investigating into the murder of Rector K J Thomas in the Pontifical Seminary premises in Malleswaram, have narrowed down on four possible suspects in the case.

On the night of the murder on April 1, a total of 18 persons were present in the premises of the pontifical seminary of which four are being considered as suspects, a senior official said. This was based on the Narco-analysis tests that were conducted as part of investigation which ruled out many persons who were being considered as suspects in the preliminary stage of investigation.

The Narco-analysis was conducted on three persons which included the procurator Patrick Xavier and the two cooks Raja and Reddy. While the two cooks did not reveal much during the test, the tests conducted on Father Patrick led to vital clues in the case as he revealed information that he had not disclosed earlier, police sources said.

Meanwhile, it has been reliably learnt that Father Patrick Xavier has been transferred out of the seminary. Police said he is among one of the four priests in the seminary, who had been transferred to different institutions of the Archdiocese across the city to facilitate investigation.

Police identified the four as Father Patrick, Sebastian Periannan, a former rector from the Salem diocese, G Joseph from Mysore diocese and Lurdu Prasad, from Bellary diocese. While Father Patrick is the procurator, the other three are all senior teachers at the seminary. A senior police official said that the four were transferred based on the advice of investigation officers.

Police officials said that the four priests were being questioned and were transferred to keep them isolated from one another as part of the investigation process. The officials said that suspects are usually questioned separately so as to ensure that the investigation doesn’t result in the same answer by all suspects during questioning.

The police have studied the video footage of the narco-tests that have been conducted so far and have noted down observations. They said that more narco-tests will be conducted on the suspects.