THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: One of the four Orthodox Church priests, who are accused in the case of rape of a 34-year-old homemaker, surrendered before the police on Thursday.
Fr Job Mathew (40) of Panthaplavu turned up at Kollam city police assistant commissioner’s office in the morning at around 10.30am and surrendered.
Following this, a team led by Crime Branch DSP, who is the investigation officer in the case, took him into custody after recording his arrest. Mathew is likely to be produced before the court on Friday.
Job Mathew is arraigned as the second accused in the case. He is accused of sexually exploiting the woman after blackmailing her using the secrets she confided in him during confession.
A day ago, the Kerala high court had rejected his bail plea along with two other accused in the case.
The other accused are Fr Sony Varghese, Fr Jaise K George and Fr Johnson V Mathew. All except the fourth accused Johnson V Mathew had sought anticipatory bail from the high court. The court instead directed them to surrender. While the first accused Sony Varghese and Johnson V Mathew would reportedly be approaching the Supreme Court for bail while Fr Jaise K George is expected to follow the path of Job Mathew and surrender before the investigators.
Fr Job Mathew
