Kochi: The Kerala High Court has dismissed the plea of Robin Vadakkumchery, a former Catholic priest convicted of raping a minor, to grant him bail so that he could “marry the survivor.”

The court said it could find no merit the petition.

Dismissing the plea, Justice Sunil Thomas stated that granting the plea would be like giving judicial approval for the marriage, reports The Times of India.

A POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court convicted Robin and sentenced him to 20 years in prison for raping and impregnating the minor girl,

The High Court also said it cannot allow a compromise or take a lenient view in matters related to sexual offences. The court reportedly cited the trial court’s finding that the survivor was a minor during the time of the assault, stating that it still remains and that granting bail to Robin and allowing them to get married would be like giving it legal sanctity.

In 2016, the survivor, a 16-year-old girl was studying in the eleventh grade in a church-backed school in Kannur district where Robin was the manager. He sexually assaulted her, who gave birth to a child in February 2017. Initially, the accused and the church had immensely pressurized the family of the survivor and had even forced her father to confess that he was the one who raped and impregnated his daughter. But later, the survivor’s family alleged that were pressurized and threatened by the Church.

DNA tests later conducted had also concluded that Robin was the father of the child. During the hearing, the court had declared the survivor hostile, after she claimed in court that she had attained the age of consent. The survivor, then an adult in 2018, had told the court that she was ready to marry Father Robin and raise the child together. However, the court convicted the Catholic priest after observing that the survivor was a minor at the time of the crime.

After he was convicted, in March 2019, the Vatican dismissed Robin from priesthood.

Following this, after a year of being convicted, he moved the High Court with a bail plea. The prosecution had vehemently opposed the priest’s plea in court. “We cannot encourage such suggestions because every rape convict will tell they want to marry the survivor,” Public Prosecutor Suman Chakravarti had told TNM.

https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/kerala-hc-dismisses-rape-convict-catholic-priest-s-outrageous-plea-marry-survivor-143608