Kochi, Apr 2, 2019: A court in Kerala on April 2 asked Syro-Malabar Church head Cardinal George Alencherry to appear before it over allegation of misappropriation of church property.
Directing the cardinal’s appearance on May 22, a Judicial Magistrate Court in Kochi also tasked others connected to the allegations to appear on the same date.
Apart from the cardinal, the court has summoned Father Joshy Pothuva and a middle-man Saju Varghese.
The proceedings in the magistrate court were initiated on a private complaint, alleging that the congregation suffered a huge loss in a land deal.
The complainant alleged that the property of the church was misappropriated using forged documents after conspiracy.
The complaint in the court comes after police registered a case against Alencherry and three others over allegations of irregularities in land deals in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese.
The FIR was registered nearly a week after the Kerala High Court ordered the police to do so in March 2018 against the cardinal, priests Puthuva and Sebastian Vadakkumpadan, and middleman Varghese on a petition filed by Shine Varghese from Cherthala.
Shine had moved the High Court, saying that the Ernakulam Central Police had not registered an FIR on his complaint against the cardinal and others over the land deals.
They were named in the complaint alleging criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and cheating in sale of over three acres of land, worth crores of rupees, belonging to the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese.
Alencherry, who is also the major archbishop of the archdiocese, is the first accused in the case, police had said.
Earlier, a six member church committee, which probed the alleged irregularities, said it had found numerous instances of violation of canon and civil laws and had recommended necessary action against those responsible.
The committee also said the cardinal “seems to have fully known and involved” in alienation and purchase of lands by the archdiocese between April 1,2015 and November 30, 2017.
The panel, comprising priests, was appointed by Alencherry.
A group of priests of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese had taken to the streets recently, urging Alencherry to keep off all responsibilities of the archdiocese in view of the high court order to launch a police probe on alleged irregularities in a land deal involving him.
A meeting of over 200 priests had also urged police to commence a probe after registering an FIR against Alencherry and others on the complaint over the alleged irregularities.
(Outlook)