By Matters India Reporter
Ranchi, March 8, 2022: The Jharkhand High Court on March 8 granted bail to Jesuit Father Alphonse Aind arrested more than three years ago in connection with the abduction and gangrape.
“I am happy to inform you that (Jesuit Father) Alphonse Aind, accused in the Kochang case, has been granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court,” says a message from Auxiliary Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Ranchi.
The prelate expressed his gratitude to Advocate Anil Kumar and all those involved in the legal battle. “We are also grateful to all who supported Father Alphonse during these difficult days with prayers,” Bishop Mascarenhas added.
Welcoming the news, Sister Maria Nirmalini, head of India’s more than 130,000 religious, said, “God be praised.”
The Apostolic Carmel nun, president of the Conference of India, told Matters India that the bail is “personally its a big relief for Father Aind and we still need to keep our hopes alive in the judiciary.”
She says they also “pray that the real culprits be punished.”
Father Aind and five others were on May 17, 2019, given life imprisonment for their involvement in the gangrape of five women nearly a year earlier in the eastern Indian state.
Rajesh Kumar, Additional Judge of Khunti District Court, also awarded seven more years of hard labor for Father Aind and others, besides imposing 100,000 rupees each as fine. The fine has to be paid to the rape survivors, the court said. Failure to do so will bring additional two more years of hard labor.
Khunti is 33 km south of the state capital of Ranchi.
A press release from the All Christians Media Cell in 2019 quoted Father Aind that he was innocent.
Father Aind, who is now in early 50s, was the parish priest of Sacred Heart Church and in-charge of Stockmann Memorial Middle School at Burudih in Kochang, some 100 km south of Ranchi.
The rape survivors were part of an 11-member tribal team from “Asha Kiran” (ray of hope), a rehabilitation center managed by Ursuline Sisters at Fudi, 20 km south of Ranchi.
They visited Kochang on June 19, 2018, to stage a play against human trafficking in the market place. Since some of them were Christians, they visited the mission school. Six men on motorcycles then came and forcibly took them to a forest about 7-8 km away and gangraped them at gunpoint.
Father Aind, who joined the Ranchi province of the Society of Jesus in 1992, was ordained a priest in 2007.
Police on June 21, 2018, took him into custody along with two nuns who brought the team to Kochang, and two teachers for interrogation. They were released a day later, but the priest was arrested on June 23 for abetting the crime.
He was sent to judicial custody, but was released on bail on March 12 by the Jharkhand High Court.
Kochang was the epicenter of the Pathalgarhi movement in Jharkhand that encourages tribals to assert their traditional and constitutional rights.
Public prosecutor Sushil Kumar Jaiswal said the court was convinced about Father Aind’s involvement in the rape conspiracy.
“Even though he had a mobile phone, he did not inform anyone, including the police, that the women had been kidnapped. He took no action after the survivors were brought back after being raped. The evidence produced by us in the court convinced the court,” the lawyer said.
Church officials maintain that all charges against the Jesuit priest are fabricated amid a hostile atmosphere against Christians.
Kochang, an area dominated by Munda tribal people, is the first parish of Jesuits in Jharkhand opened by Father Augustus Stockmann, Chotanagpur’s pioneering Catholic missionary.
As far as I can recall these arrests were made on rather flimsy grounds, with a possible political angle. What was the testimony of the rape victims?
The case basically relates to Pathalgarhi movement and the struggle of the tribal people for land rights.
We also had the case of Fr Stan Swamy who was zealous about tribal rights but failed to get proper guidance from the church. In fact, the church itself is confused as to what steps they should take to help the tribals.
I take home the lesson that if accident or violation of law is noticed, it has to be brought to the notice of the police.