Coimbatore: The city police on Tuesday booked a case against the bishop, advisor, treasurer and former secretary of the Church of South India (CSI) for allegedly misappropriating PF funds to the tune of more than Rs 25 crore of the church workers.
Bishop RP Rev Timothy Ravinder, former secretary Charles, advisor Mangaldas and treasurer Selvakumar of the Church of South India were booked based on a complaint filed by Gershome Jecop, 62, leader and pastor (in charge), CSI Church in Vellalore.
“In his complaint, the pastor said that the church management has been deducting a sum from the employees’ salary for the past 15 years and several people are employed at 125 churches in the Coimbatore zone of CSI. In 2019, he had written twice to the church management seeking details about the PF fund. As he had not received any response, he had visited the PF office only to know that the church management had started depositing employees’ PF amount to the government only from August 2019,” a police officer said.
Meanwhile, the church management has provided a new UAN number of its employees around the same time and the pastor was shocked to find only Rs 45,000 in his PF account, the official said. When he confronted the management, he had not received any satisfactory response and it, in turn, had strengthened his suspicion.
Subsequently, he filed a complaint with the city crime branch on Tuesday alleging that the church management has misappropriated the employees’ PF amount without depositing it to the government, he added.
Based on his complaint, police booked an FIR under sections 420, 120 B and 408 of the Indian Penal code and further investigation is on.