Kottiyoor Rape Case: Accused Catholic Priest Approaches Kerala Hc for Bail

News Minute
June 3, 2017

http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/kottiyoor-rape-case-accused-catholic-priest-approaches-kerala-hc-bail-63076


Kottiyoor priest Robin Vadakkumchery, accused of raping and impregnating a minor girl, has approached the High Court seeking bail.

The Catholic priest’s justification for seeking bail is that his custody was not required any more as police had completed investigation in the case and has filed the final report, Times of India reports.

Robin Vadakkumchery was arrested on February 28 while he was trying to escape to Canada.

The arrest came three weeks after the girl's delivery. She gave birth to the child on February 7 in Kannur. The child, a boy, was reportedly sent to an adoption centre run by nuns.

The priest had first tried to implicate the girl’s father as the accused in the case whereas the girl’s parents kept her in the dark about the childbirth. They told her that she was operated on for appendicitis.

On March 31, a DNA test proved that he is the biological father of the child born to the minor girl.

The incident came to light after Childline officials of Kannur received an anonymous letter.

Father Robin was posted at the Mananthavady Catholic Diocese’s Church at Kottiyoor in Kannur two and half years ago.

He also worked as the manager of a school attached to the church. The 17-year-old girl was a Plus One student at the school.

In addition to the priest, nine persons, including two more priests and five nuns were made accused in the case by police for failing to report the delivery by a minor girl. All the accused have been arrested.