Church sex scandal: 4 priests booked

The Kerala Police’s Crime Branch has booked four priests of the influential Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in the sensational case pertaining to the sexual abuse of a young married woman by blackmailing her using her confession secrets.

The four priests – Abraham Varghese (Sony), Jais K George, Job Mathew and Johnson V Mathew, as per reports – were charged with rape and outraging the modesty of woman. The Crime Branch registered the case after recording the statement of the woman whose husband had earlier petitioned the Church leadership about the sexual exploitation.

Though the complaint was originally against five priests and the woman had identified all of them, the FIR has been registered only against four of them. A Crime Branch official said though there were reports earlier about the involvement of five priests, the woman had mentioned only four of them.

He said the Crime Branch would now approach a court in Thiruvalla, Pathanamthitta for recording the statement of the woman under Section 164 of the CrPC. The police might not for the time being arrest the four accused as there were “formalities and procedures to be completed”, he added.

The four priests had reportedly gone into hiding immediately after the news of the registration of the case against them came despite the fact one of them had told the media the other day that he was ready to cooperate with any kind of probe, even for a polygraph examination. The priests were said to be preparing to move the High Court for anticipatory bail.

With the registration of the case against the four priests, the inquiry initiated by the commissions appointed in three dioceses by the Church’s leadership on May 15 – Niranam, Thumpamon and Delhi – to which the five priests belonged on the basis of a complaint lodged by the woman’s husband, a native of Anikkad in Pathanamthitta district, on May 7 has lost its relevance.

After receiving the complaint from the woman’s husband, the Church leadership had instructed the five accused priests to stay away from performing priestly duties. A three-member Crime Branch team headed by Superintendent of Police Sabu Mathew had the other day recorded the statement of the woman and her husband.

The Crime Branch took up the probe into the scandal that has stunned not just the Orthodox Church but other Churches of Kerala as well as per instructions issued by the State police chief, DGP Loknath Behera, on the basis of a letter written to him by former chief minister VS Achuthanandan demanding a police probe.

The scandal had erupted a few days ago after an audio clip containing a purported conversation between the young woman’s husband and an official of the Orthodox Church in which he alleged sexual abuse of his wife by the priests came out through social media. The man alleged that the priests had sexually abused his wife by blackmailing her using her secret confession.

In the audio-clip, the woman’s husband was heard saying that she had been abused by a priest before marriage. “She had confessed the matter later to a priest in her confession but he exploited her sexually by threatening to reveal the confession secret to me,” he said. Three other priests also had allegedly abused her by blackmailing her with the confession secret.

Reports quoted the woman as saying in a statement that Fr Abraham Varghese, who was a neighbour, had exploited her sexually when she was only 16 and this had continued even after her marriage. She had cited this in 2009 in her confession heard by Fr Job Mathew, who allegedly exploited her sexually by blackmailing her with this confession secret.

It is said that the other priests who exploited her using the confession secret to blackmail her had come to know of it from Fr Job. She reportedly said that Fr Jais K George had exploited her sexually using threats and force. Fr Jais had abused her sexually at a star hotel in Kochi several times, according to her.