Determined to nab the co-accused before they got the chance to surrender before the Judiciary, the Kerala Police on Sunday intensified their search for the co-accused in the case pertaining to the rape of a 16-year-old girl by senior Syro-Malabar Catholic Church priest Robin Vadakkumchery in Kottiyoor, Kannur district.
The rape victim gave birth to a baby boy at a Church-controlled hospital in Kannur on February 7.
The police had nabbed Robin on February 27 as he was preparing to flee for Canada. They have received information that another priest of the Church’s Mananthawady Diocese, with which Robin also was associated, had arranged the ticket and other documents for the rapist’s foiled trip to Canada. This priest is said to have been an associate of Robin in his earlier illegal activities.
Police sources said the seven co-accused in the case, who had allegedly entered into a conspiracy to protect Robin by arranging necessary assistance at the hospital where the girl had delivered the baby, the Church-controlled orphanage in Vythiri, Wayanad, to where the baby was taken and in the adoption process of the baby, had most probably gone into hiding.
They also indicated that the names of Mananthawady Diocese’s public relations officer (PRO) Fr Thomas Joseph Therakam and Dr Betty, respectively chairman and member of the Wayanad District Child Welfare Committee, could be added to the list of accused for authenticating the adoption of the new-born baby on the basis of forged documents.
The diocese on Sunday removed Fr Therakam from the post of its PRO. The police’s efforts on Sunday to find Fr Therakam and Betty failed as they presumably went into hiding after Saturday night’s Ministerial-level decision to remove them from their positions. Steps were being taken to ensure that they were held before they got the chance to surrender in a court.
The seven people already named as the co-accused of the rapist priest, the first accused, include two nuns, one a gynecologist and the other the administrator, and a pediatrician of the Church-run Christu Raj Hospital at Thokkilangadi and a woman aide at the St Sebastian’s Church, Kottiyoor where Robin was the Vicar.
Two nuns of the Church-controlled Holy Infant Mary Orphanage at Vythiri to where the baby was taken and another nun of a convent at Iritti, Kannur have also been named as accused. “This is a very sensitive case. We are taking all possible care to make the arrests without triggering any controversy … just like we had done in the case of Fr Robin,” said a police official.
Meanwhile, Mananthawady Bishop Mar Jose Porunnedam said in the statement announcing the removal of Fr Therakam as Diocesan PRO that the Church leadership had never tried to protect the accused. He said the diocesan leadership had not contacted the CWC, the adoption centre at Vythiri or Christu Raj Hospital with the intention of concealing the crime.
“The diocese shares the position of Pope Francis that the Church should stand by the victim in cases of child abuse. The diocese is committed to stand by the victim in the case involving Robin Vadakkumchery. We think that this is not the time to contact the girl or her family as efforts to sabotage the case could be alleged when the investigation is in progress,” the statement said.
At the same time, senior Congress leader AK Antony said that Robin could not be considered as a priest. “The crime he has committed is most heinous. There is no need to consider him as a priest. He should be handled as a criminal,” Antony said in Kozhikode, adding that the religious or political background of the offender need not be taken into consideration in such cases.