By Matters India Reporter

Chikmagalur: A court in Karnataka, southern India, has spared a Catholic bishop from facing police inquiry into a land dispute.

The Sessions Court in Chikmagalur’s September 1 order observed the accusation against Bishop Thomasappa Anthony Swamy of Chikmagalur and a priest was false.

A group of priests and lay people had earlier accused the prelate and Father A Shantharaj of selling a property attached a Church school by fabricating documents.

V T Thomas, the prelate’s lawyer, challenged the case and explained to the court that the plot in dispute was “never sold” and no manipulation of documents had been done.

Presenting proof of documents and minutes of the St. Joseph’s Education Society that controls the property, the lawyer pleaded that the case filed by Michael Sadananda Baptist against the bishop was “fabricated and without evidence.”

Thomas, the lawyer, told Matters India that a criminal case has also been filed with city police against Baptist “for cheating, tampering documents, mischief, and criminal conspiracy to tarnish the name of the Bishop and the Diocese.”

Earlier on August 19, the principal senior civil and chief judicial magistrate had ordered a criminal case registered against the bishop and the priest for allegedly manipulating documents to convert a plot meant for a hostel into residential sites.

The case involves a half an acre property touching the national Highway that philanthropist F G H Fernandes had in 1984 donated to St. Joseph’s Educational Society for building a hostel for poor children.

According to the earlier case filed by Baptist, Bishop Swamy, who is president of the society, and Father Shantharaj, a member of the diocesan financial committee, fabricated documents. They used the school property’s 1976 registration to obtain a new document for the donated plot. They then allegedly transferred it to a newly created society called “Santha Josephara Shalegala Education Society.”

The governing body members had accused the bishop and the priest of indulging in underhand dealing to pocket an undisclosed big amount. They also alleged that the duo sold “the forbidden property” at “a throwaway price” causing a loss of 66 million rupees to the society. The duo was also accused of cheating the government through evasion of taxes and stamp duty.

The bishop and the priest had done the transactions keeping the society in the dark. However, the governing body members exposed the duo’s alleged misdeeds by obtaining the documents from the relevant authorities.

Baptist told a press meet on August 27 that the irregularities and misdeeds were recorded at a governing body meeting where the bishop, who was present, signed the meeting minutes.

He also told the press that they had informed the nuncio about the irregularities. However, they received no response, forcing them to go to court against the bishop and the priest.

Thomas denied the allegations and said the case was hooked up by a few influential members of the local Christian community to “boost the age-old language issue” in the diocese.

The bishop and the priest are Kannada-speakers whereas his opponents speak Konkani.

Bishop Swamy is the first Kannadiga to head the diocese, erected in 1963. Two earlier bishops – Alphonse Mathias and John Baptist Sequeira – were Konkani-speakers.

Thomas said discussions about selling the property had taken place in the council meetings of the Education Society since 2017 as they have already set apart a better site adjacent to the society for the hostel. Moreover, the society would lose the land in case the road is widened in future, Thomas said.

“It was true that the bishop had agreed to sell the property based on the recommendations of the society and an advance was taken in the name of the Education Society, but as some objections arose, the sale agreement was cancelled and the advance was returned,” the lawyer explained.

The language trouble began when Kannada was officially declared as the language of liturgy in Chikmagalur diocese. Some tension existed between the two groups, Thomas said.

The Education Society is dominated by Konkani speakers, Thomas added.