The Kochi Police on Monday registered a case against Cardinal Mar George Alencherry, head of Kerala’s mighty Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, and three others including two senior priests over the sensational multi-crore rupee land scam in the Church’s Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of which Mar Alencherry is the Major Archbishop.
As per the FIR registered at the Ernakulam Central Police Station in Kochi, diocesan finance officer Fr Joshi Puthuva, Vicar General Monsignor Sebastian Vadakkumpadan and Saju Varghese, middleman for the sale of the diocese’s land, are the second, third and fourth accused respectively. The case was registered as per an order the High Court issued on March 6.
The three clergymen and the middleman were booked after the police received legal advice to that effect from the State Director General of Prosecutions on Monday. The delay on the part of the police in booking the Cardinal had led to criticisms that they had been delaying action so that Mar Alencherry could get time to appeal against the court order.
Cardinal Alencherry and the other accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 405 and 406 (criminal breach of trust and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property). The High Court had issued the order on the basis of a petition filed by one Shine Varghese of Cherthala, Alappuzha.
However, the police are unlikely to immediately enter into follow-up actions like arresting the accused and may wait till a division bench of the High Court takes a decision on the appeals Mar Alencherry and the other accused filed on Monday challenging the March 6 order of the single-judge bench.
The reluctance the police had allegedly showed to register a case against the Church head and others despite the court order had generated widespread criticisms. It was even alleged that the police had delayed the process on the basis of instructions issued by someone in the CPI(M)-led lDF Government.
Though the office of the Director General of Prosecutions had said on Monday morning itself that clearance for the registration of the case had been given, the police registered the FIR only after the Cardinal and others filed their appeals in the division bench. Shine Varghese has approached the court seeking contempt proceedings against the responsible police officers.
The case pertains to the sale of over three acres of prime land belonging to the Archdiocese for mobilizing funds to repay a hefty bank loan availed for a now-aborted medical college project. The prime land was sold through middleman Saju Varghese allegedly for less than one-thirds of the price it could fetch, causing losses to the tune of crores of rupees to the diocese.
The Cardinal himself had signed all the sale documents and the charge against him is that he had carried out the deal without proper discussions in and clearance from the concerned Church forums.