WEB DESK
The Kerala High Court Tuesday denied anticipatory bail to two priests of the Syrian Orthodox Church accused to sexually exploiting a married woman.
Fathers Sony Varghese, 42, and Job Mathew, 40, had moved the anticipatory bail pleas in the court apprehending arrest in the case.
Adjourning the case to July 9, Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan declined the priests’ pleas not to arrest them until further hearing of the case.
The court also directed police to produce the complaint of sexual harassment of the woman filed by her husband and other documents related to the case.
Father Varghese and Mathew moved the high court a day after the Crime Branch wing of Kerala Police slapped rape charges against them and two other priests in the case.
The priests, in separate, but identical pleas, rejected the woman’s allegations that they had sexually assaulted her.
The Crime Branch (CB) in Kerala on Monday booked four priests of the Malankara Orthodox church on charges of rape and molesting a woman.
A man from Thiruvalla had alleged that five priests of the church had been sexually abusing his wife for several years, after one of them threatened her using her confession secret.
Four priests viz. Fr Abraham Varghese, Fr Job Mathew, Fr Johnson Mathew and Fr Jaise George have been booked on charges of rape and molestation.
The case was registered against the priests after the investigating team recorded the survivor’s statement.
The survivor had reportedly confessed about her relationship prior to her marriage to Fr Job, after which, he allegedly threatened that he would disclose it to the survivor’s husband. Subsequently, more priests began to threaten her and demand sexual favours.
On Friday, days after the case came to light, state DGP Loknath Behera directed the CB to initiate a probe into the issue.
This development comes in the wake of mounting pressure on the state police for not having registered a suo motu case, despite the survivor’s husband revealing to the media that his wife was sexually abused. The survivor’s husband had also alleged that despite him complaining to the Church months ago, it took no action against the accused priests.
Meanwhile, the Church relieved the accused priests from their official duties and sent them on leave, instead of proceeding with disciplinary action or reporting the crime to the police.
Police finally intervened after criticism arose even from National Commission for Women (NCW) and Communist leader VS Achuthanandan writing to the state DGP to initiate a probe into the allegations.
The priests, in separate, but identical pleas, rejected the woman’s allegations that they had sexually assaulted her.
They alleged that the crime was registered against them “solely at the instance of the political pressure exerted by certain vested interests to derive political mileage.”
Both claimed that even if the charges by the alleged victim in their entirety were assumed to be correct, without them admitting, the same does not make out an offence under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code.
They contended that the entire allegation revealed that sexual intercourse, if any, was fully consensual.
Meanwhile, Crime Branch Inspector General S Sreejith, who is heading the probe, visited the headquarters of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in Kottayam and discussed case-related matters with its supreme head, Baselios Marthoma Paulose II.
Sreejith said the head priest told him to take all legal steps correctly in the case.
He also offered all help to police in the probe.
The crime branch had on July 2 registered a First Information Report and slapped rape charges against the priests after recording the woman’s statement.
In June, a member of the Church accused five priests of using his wife’s confession to blackmail and sexually exploit her.
The incident came to light after an audio clip containing the man’s purported conversation with a church official was widely circulated on social media.
The investigation team had recorded the statement of the victim’s husband earlier.
The man had reportedly handed over copies of evidence against the priests to the crime branch team.
Kerala police chief Loknath Behara June end ordered a Crime Branch probe into the case.