The chargesheet filed by the Special Investigation Team(SIT) probing the alleged forgery of documents to defame Cardinal George Alencherry, head of Catholic Church in the State against three priests and a member of the laity before a Kochi Court on Friday has given rise to more suspicions among the believers.
Various wings of the Church are of the view that extremist organizations have managed to infiltrate into the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese headed by the Cardinal and are influencing the decision making process.
The allegations against the 75-year-old Cardinal include illegal dealings in the sale of land belonging to the Archdiocese. The probe by the SIT of the Kerala Police found that the documents submitted by a group of three priests that include Antony Kallookkaran, Paul Thelekkat, Benny John Maramparambil and Adithya Z Valavi from Kochi (a post graduate in engineering who reportedly fabricated the documents at the instance of the above mentioned priests) were fake.
While the priests had managed to escape arrest by availing anticipatory bail, Adithya was arrested by the police and this led to some members of the laity coming out in the open questioning the stance of the Church in the episode.
The SIT probe was based on a complaint by the Archdiocese that some of the senior priests had forged documents to tarnish the image of the Cardinal. The four accused have been slapped with charges of criminal conspiracy, forgery, forgery for the purpose of cheating, fraudulently use as genuine a forged document, forgery for the purpose of harming reputation, cheating and causing disappearance of evidence of the IPC.
“There are enough evidences to suggest that these three priests and some others are supporting the jihadi elements. We have seen these three priests with Jihadi links staging demonstrations over non-issues,” said Jaison Mazhuvancherry, a laity leader from Pulluvazhi.
A spokesperson of the Christian Action for Social Action (CASA), an umbrella organisation fighting for the rights of the community, said they were worried over the presence of Islamic extremist activists and leaders in some of the rallies and demonstrations staged by the laity. “These Jehadis took part in these rallies in large numbers. There are enough reasons for us to worry over their motives. Besides the three priests mentioned in the charge-sheet, there are more persons behind the conspiracy,” he said.
He also pointed out that when some nuns staged a sit-in in front of the Kerala High Court demanding the immediate arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, head of the Jalandhar Diocese, on charges of molestation of a nun, various Islamic extremist organisations had taken part in the demonstration. “The allegations against Bishop Franco Mulakkal are yet to be proved. But the enthusiasm of these outsiders remains a mystery,” said Kevin Peter, president, CASA. He said there was enough documentary evidence suggesting that the allegations against the Cardinal and the Bishop were fake.
The priests named in the SIT charge-sheet were in the forefront against the agitation demanding the arrest of the Bishop, pointed out Jaison. “A person should be treated as like any other human being till it is proved that he has committed a crime. We should not play with somebody’s life,” he said.
The sale of Deepika, a Malayalam newspaper owned by the Church to an Islamic extremist had caused major resentment among the laity and the management had to make a hasty retreat and buy back the same.