Coimbatore: Coimbatore diocese in southern India has denied newspaper reports that its bishop and four priests were held for hiding information on a girl’s death and later released them on bail.
The “report is false, malafide and defamatory. Neither the bishop nor the priests were arrested, nor was there any question of being released on bail,” says an undated statement from diocesan public relations officer Fr. Antony Vinodh.
Newspaper reports in mid August quoted the police as saying that the clergy were given bail after recording their statements.
Fr Vinod’s statement clarifies that “a certain priest by name Arokiaraj was accused of abusing a girl in July 2013” and that Bishop Thomas Aquinas of Coimbatore was abroad when the police filed the First Information Report.
On his return after 20 days, the prelate formed a canonical team of priests to investigate the crime and asked the accused priest to appear before the team.
Once the bishop was satisfied of a prima facie case against Fr Arokiaraj, he suspended the priest and referred the matter to the Vatican. “The priest has since been dismissed clerically,” says the PRO’s statement.
It further says the girl’s mother, in a bid to “tarnish the good name of the diocese,” complained to the police after three years that the canonical team had concealed the priest’s offense and failed to inform the police.
The police, the diocesan statement adds, that were already handling the FIR filed three years ago, called the four priests to the station to get their explanation.
The diocesan team explained to the police that they had not tried to hide facts in the case and “that the very action of suspending the priest and then having him dismissed from the clerical state are evidence to this effect,” the diocese clarifies.
The diocese also claims the police were satisfied with the team’s explanation and let the priests leave the station “at once. Now the priests are in the respective parishes and doing their ministry.”
The case began after Fathima Sofia, 19, was found dead at the parsonage of St Stanlisalus Church in Chandrapuram in Kerala’s Palakkad district on July 23, 2013. The then parish priest Fr H Arockiaraj was arrested in 2015 in connection with the death.
The case was reopened in 2015 after the victim’s mother, Shanthi Roselin, received a favorable verdict from the court for further investigation. The police had earlier concluded that Sofia had committed suicide as her body was found hanging. But Roselin argued that her daughter was sexually exploited in the church.