Kerala Cops to Probe Priest Abuse

By K.M. Rakesh
The Telegraph
June 30, 2018

https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/kerala-cops-to-probe-priest-abuse-241351

The Kerala police chief has ordered a crime branch probe into allegations that a group of priests misused confession secrets to sexually exploit a woman, the directive apparently following a nudge from former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan.

Sources said the CPM veteran had written to director-general of police Loknath Behera requesting the police register a suo motu case, based on the allegations by the woman's husband.

In a letter to the Kottayam-based Malankara Orthodox Church, the husband has accused five priests of using his wife's secret confessions to blackmail and sexually exploit her. However, neither the husband nor the wife has lodged a police complaint.

The Church has already started a probe by its priests and officials but Achuthanandan wrote to Behera that an internal probe was not enough. The state human rights commission too had urged the police to register a suo motu case.

The controversy broke after a recording of a telephone conversation, in which the husband purportedly narrates his wife's ordeal to another man, went viral on social media.

According to the audio and the husband's written complaint to the Church, the woman's parish priest first exploited her before she got married and continued the abuse even afterwards.

Filled with remorse, she apparently confessed the sin to a different priest, who then allegedly blackmailed her into

According to the husband, this priest passed on the woman's pictures to a few other priests, and they too blackmailed and sexually abused her for a long time.

All the accused are in their 30s.

The husband says he accidentally learnt about the matter when he looked into his wife's bank statements for the purpose of filing tax returns and found she had paid for rooms at a five-star hotel in Kochi. Confronted, she broke down and confessed.

The Church has revealed that three of the accused priests belong to the Thiruvalla diocese and one each to the Pathanamthitta and Delhi dioceses. It has welcomed the police investigation and promised cooperation.

"We have no issues with any investigation as we want the truth to come out," Biju Oomen, secretary of the Malankara Orthodox Church Association, told reporters in Kottayam on Friday.

But he warned people not to make false allegations against the Church.

"We see a tendency to sully the good name of the Church. We will take necessary action against those who carry out any smear campaign," he said, without clarifying if he had anyone particular in mind.