Two of the four priests of the Kerala-based Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, who have been accused of sexually abusing a woman parishioner by blackmailing her using her confession secret, surrendered on Monday. The other two priests accused in the case were arrested more than a month ago.
First accused Fr Abraham Varghese alias Sony surrendered before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court at Thiruvalla in Pathanamthitta district, the trial court for the case, at 10.15 AM Monday and fourth accused Fr Jaise K George surrendered at the office of the Deputy Superintendent (DySP) of the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police in Kollam at 10.30 AM.
The two priests surrendered following the rejection of their anticipatory bail applications by the Supreme Court on August 6. The apex court had given them time till Monday to surrender. Sources said that they had surrendered just when the police were preparing to arrest them on Monday itself if they failed to show up.
According to the victim’s statements to the police and before a Magistrate, Abraham Varghese was the first of the four priests to rape her. She has said that he had sexually abused her in 1999 when she was 16 and unmarried by promising to marry her and had continued to abuse her even after her marriage with another man by threatening to disclose the relationship to her husband.
While three of the four accused priests have been charged with rape under Section 376 of the IPC, relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act have also been slapped on Abraham Mathew, attached to the Orthodox Church’s Niranam Diocese in Kerala, as he has been accused of raping her when she was a minor.
According to the woman, Jaise K George of the Delhi Diocese of the Church, to whom she had described the bad experiences she had faced from the other three priests during a counseling session, had abused her sexually by blackmailing her with that secret. He had allegedly raped her at a luxury hotel in Kochi and had even made her pay the hotel expenses.
The Crime Branch of the police probing the allegations questioned the two priests on Monday. They will also apply for getting the accused in their custody. The Supreme Court had ruled that the rape-accused priests could apply for bail in local court after they surrendered and their lawyers were expected to file their bail pleas at the earliest.
The police had arrested the other two accused priests, Fr Job Mathew of the Niranam Diocese and Fr Johnson V Mathew of the Thumpamon Diocese, respectively on July 12 and 13. Job is the second accused in the case and Johnson is the third accused. The Kerala High Court had granted bail to Job and Johnson respectively on July 23 and 25.
As per the victim’s complaint, she had revealed the bad experience she had faced from the first accused in the confession she made before Job Mathew, who was her parish priest, after her marriage. However, he allegedly abused her sexually by blackmailing her misusing the confession secret and by threatening to disclose it to her husband.
The woman, according to her own statement, had told Johnson V Mathew, a former friend, about the ordeals she had gone through in the hands of Abraham Varghese and Job Mathew but he made some lustful advances. All the other three accused have been charged with rape but Johnson is charged with outraging modesty of woman.
The sex scandal rocking the Orthodox Syrian Church erupted in June after an audio clip containing a purported conversation between the woman’s husband and a Church official in which the former alleged sexual abuse of his wife by the priests came out through social media.
He had said they had sexually abused his wife by blackmailing her with her confession secret.