By Matters India Reporter
Gwalior, July 24, 2023: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ordered a fresh probe into the death of a Catholic bishop in the central Indian state.
Bishop Thomas Thennatt of Gwalior died in a road accident on December14, 2018 and his family members suspected foul play in the death as the prelate’s body was buried without performing the mandatory post-mortem examination.
The Gwalior bench of the high court on July 19 ordered the probe into the death of the bishop, who was then 65 years old.
The single bench of Justice Roopesh Chandra Varshney in its order dismissed the objections from the First Additional Sessions Judge, Shivpuri district that upheld the order of the Judicial Magistrate First Class in the same district and ordered for a fresh probe.
“In the opinion of this court, the aforesaid approach of both the courts below suffer from material irregularity,” the high court bench said.
It referred to arecent Supreme Court order that said, “The victim has a fundamental right of fair investigation and fair trial. Therefore, mere filing of the charge-sheet and framing of the charges cannot be an impediment in ordering further investigation/re-investigation/, if the facts so warrant.”
The high court in July 2022 had passed a similar order after the petitioner Claramma Constatine, a sibling of the bishop sought for a impartial probe into his death.
The petitioner approached the judicial magistrate court that heard the case for fresh probe in view of the high court order but her plea was turned down saying, “The application of the petitioner has been dismissed on the ground that an application for further investigation in any matter can be entertained till the commencement of trial i.e. once the charges have been framed and the matter is listed for prosecution evidence, no such application for further investigation can be entertained.”
The petitioner, subsequently, appealed before the Sessions court against the order of the lower court. The sessions court too upheld the lower court order forcing her to approach the high court again seeking direction for a fresh and impartial probe into her brother’s death.
“We are happy that the high court has accepted our demand for a fresh probe into the death of Bishop Thennatt,” says Pastor Lovers Masih, the son in law of the petitioner.
“We are hopeful that the truth will be established in the probe,” Pastor Masih told Matters India on July 24.
The body of the bishop was exhumed in June 2019 and conducted post mortem examination six months after his burial following a petition by Dolly Theresa, a local Catholic who approached a court alleging foul play into his death.
The petitioner in her petition said “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, raising suspicions.”
She accused the diocesan officials of refusing to hand over “bishop’s personal belongings such as ATM, checkbook among others things and denying permission to take his body to his home state Kerala.”
She also questioned the way the diocesan officials buried his body without even mandatory autopsy.
Constatine said, the diocese favoured the driver who drove the car of bishop Thennatt at the time of accident and even given jobs to his family members and associates among other things to pointed that there was some foul play in his death.
The petitioner has also named eight priests in the diocese among the 21 as respondents.
Father N John Xavier, named as one of the respondents, told Matters India on July 24 “It is a fact that the bishop died in the road accident” and added, he “will not run away from any investigation.”
“Police interrogated me and I have the same thing to say again as the truth remains the same.”
Father Xavier, a former vicar general, said he was not present with the bishop at the time of the accident, or when he was taken to the hospital where he was declared dead. He was not present when it was decided to bury him without mandatory post-mortem examination.
“I only attended his funeral,” he added.
The priest further clarified, “Bishop (Emeritus) Joseph Kaithathara of Gwalior had ordered to bury the body without post-mortem examination and it seemed to have created confusion among his family and others.”
Bishop Thennatt was the first member of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate, popularly known as the Pallottines, to become a bishop in India.
Pope Francis appointed him the Gwalior bishop on October 18, 2016. He was ordained a priest in 1978 and had served Guntur diocese in Andhra Pradesh before moving to Madhya Pradesh in 1991.