Kolkata: Police in West Bengal Monday arrested a 64-year-old man in connection with the vandalism of a Catholic church in the eastern Indian state.
The parish priest of St Thomas Church, Taherpur in Nadia district, found Friday the tabernacle removed from its place and its content, Consecrated Hosts, thrown on the floor.
Church groups such as the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) had condemned the incident and demanded immediate arrest of those guilty of such dastardly and sacrilegious act.
The Tehepur church is only 25 kilometers from Ranaghat where a Catholic nun was gangraped four months ago.
The police cracked the case and arrested a man called Tapan Mondal who was appointed the church’s caretaker a month ago. A senior police official said on Monday that “it was an insider’s job.”
He said the arrested man had confessed to his crime. The official said his men had suspected from the beginning of the investigation that the raid was different as there was no evidence of the robber’s entry or exit point. All the doors and windows were secured and intact.
However, working on the crime scene and interrogating the staff members the police finally cracked the case on Monday. The arrested caretaker was produced before Ranaghat court and remanded to custody. But he fell sick and was admitted to a hospital.
The parish priest said it was embarrassing to learn that a church worker was involved in the act.
The priest, who identified himself only as Satish, said the police had consulted the church authorities before arresting the caretaker. He said he appointed Mondal about a month a half ago. He had worked as caretaker in other churches as well, the priest explained.
Earlier, CBCI deputy secretary general Monsignor Joseph Chinnayyan termed the incident as dastardly sacrilegious and expressed “deep concern” over increasing attacks on churches and missionaries in various parts of India.
The bishops appealed to the state and federal governments to take immediate and appropriate measures to curb what they said were “well-orchestrated evil designs to desecrate the places of worship and hurt the religious feelings of the minorities.”
The incident also triggered outrage among local people.