Four Orthodox Church priests in Kerala booked for rape
Thiruvananthapuram, July 2: The Kerala Police's Crime Branch, probing the case of alleged sexual exploitation of a woman by some priests of the Kottayam-headquartered Malankara Orthodox Church, on Tuesday registered an FIR against four priests on the victim's complaint.
Inspector General of Police S.Sreejith, who led the probe team, said that the FIR charging the four priests with rape has been filed, while clarifying on the number of the accused.
"It was true that in the initial news reports there were five priests, but in her complaint, only four of them have been named," he said.
He said that the woman will now be asked to give a statement before a magistrate and then again the probe team will sit to decide the next course of action.
"At the moment, arrests of the four might not happen, as there are formalities and procedures to be undertaken," Sreejith added.
On last Friday, Kerala Police chief Loknath Behra ordered a Crime Branch probe into this case on the allegations made by the victim's husband, who belongs to the same church.
An online portal had first reported the story last week, following which tremendous pressure from several quarters, especially social media users, mounted on the Church, which then announced an internal probe.
The husband has said one of the priest who first exploited his wife was blackmailing her. When she sought help from another priest, he too, threatened her and shared her contact with another fellow priest and in the end, she came under the duress from at least five priests.
The Kerala Police started its probe after the National Commission for Women took suo motu cognisance of the case and wrote to Behra, directing him to investigate the matter.
With the FIR getting registered, the ongoing probe by a commission of the church might turn out to be infructuous.
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State govt has funds in SDRF for Wayanad rehabilitation: Centre to Kerala HC
Kochi, Nov 15: The Centre on Friday informed the Kerala High Court that money for Wayanad rehabilitation was available in the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and information regarding allocation of any additional funds for it will be conveyed by the end of the month.
The submission from the central government came during the hearing of a plea initiated by the High Court for prevention and management of natural disasters in the state in the wake of the landslides that devastated three villages in Wayanad district of Kerala.
The state government on the other hand told the court that the Centre in a letter has said it will not allocate any more funds, than what has already been allocated, for the rehabilitation of the disaster victims.
It claimed that no positive assurance has been received from the Centre.
A bench of justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and K V Jayakumar, however, did not agree with the state's stand and questioned whether it was based on media reports.
The bench told the state government that the Centre has not said that it will not provide more assistance.
It said that while news reports may appear to indicate that nothing will be provided, if you look at the details, it does not seem so.
The state's contentions were based on news reports and the letter received from the Centre.
The Centre in a letter to the state had said that under the existing guidelines of SDRF and NDRF, there is no provision to declare any calamity a 'national disaster'.
The matter will be heard next on Friday, the court said.
