By Matters India Reporter
Morena, March 26, 2023: A Catholic school in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has been sealed and its principal arrested after an investigation team found objectionable materials in the premises.
A Church official in the state, who refused to be identified, told Matters India March 27 that efforts are on to get bail for the priest.
He also said only the priests’ residence inside the school campus has been sealed.
Earlier, a report in the Free Press Journal said the collector of Morena district ordered the closure of St Mary’s School in the town after a surprise inspection by the state’s Child Protection Commission along with District Education Officer and the police.
The police reportedly arrested Father Dionysius R B, the school principal after the March 25 inspection.
The collector acted on a petition from Nivedita Sharma, a commission member who led the inspection. She reportedly said her team had discovered several bottles of foreign liquor from the priest’s room. They also found some religious propaganda materials.
The Excise Department and Civil Line Police have reportedly registered cases while the education department sealed the school, said Ashutosh Bagri, the Superintendent of Police.
The school comes under the diocese of Gwalior and Morena is some 470 km north of the state capital of Bhopal, and 40 km northwest of Gwalior.
The diocesan officials, including the bishop, refused to talk to the media on the matter. Matters India tried to talk to Church officials in the diocese and the state several times without success.
The police took Father Dionysius into custody for questioning. The police are reportedly probing whether the children were being exploited, according to a report in the Dainik Bhaskar newspaper.
On the collector’s, instruction, District Education Officer AK Pathak sealed the rooms of the school manager and Father Dionysius. They also locked the main entrance of the school at 4 pm.
The Dainik Bhaskar reported that the priest evaded questions from the media, but said he had only two bottles of liquor although he does not drink alcohol.
Meanwhile the activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, have reportedly burnt the effigy of the school management and plan to organize more protests.
This case relates to Gwalior Diocese. There was an earlier case in the same diocese relating to the death of Bishop Thomas Thennatt, former bishop of Gwalior, who died in car cash in 2018. Family of the deceased bishop raised serious doubts over his death. They alluded to the fact that there were three others including the driver traveling in the car at the time of the accident. But none of them suffered even a minor scratch on their bodies and gave contradictory statements about the whole incident.
His body was buried in a hurry, without the mandatory post mortem. The bishop’s family also questioned the conduct of the driver who refused to cooperate with the police probe and expressed surprise at his later employment by a church-run school on higher wages
Liquorgate under Article 30? Certainly not a feather on the cap of Catholic institutions!!