On Sunday, January 8, reports emerged that a group of women assaulted a man and his family in Kerala on Thursday evening. The women alleged that the man, named Plathottathil Veettil Shaji, had circulated morphed photos of a woman in the community through social media. On Friday, the Aloor Police in the Thrissur district arrested 11 women on the complaint of Shaji, a native of Muriyad in Thrissur district. All the accused were produced before the court and sent to Judicial custody.
The video of the attack, shot by a passerby, went viral after it was shared with local media. In the video, a group of women, followers of the Emperor Emmanuel Church, also known as Zion Church, were seen attacking Plathottathil Shaji and his family in their car.
The victim, speaking about what transpired on Thursday evening, alleged a conspiracy behind the attack and sought action against Emperor Emmanuel Church authorities. In his complaint, Plathottathil Veettil Shaji, who defected from the church, said that the women had attacked his family in retaliation for cutting ties with the Zion retreat centre under the Emperor Emmanuel Church.
Notably, the complainant Shaji, his wife Ashlyn, son Sajan, and their relatives were on their way back home on Thursday evening when the incident happened. As their car passed the church building, a group of more than 50 women blocked their vehicle, pulled out Shaji, and attacked him with a wooden log. The others present in the car were also attacked. All of them were injured, and Shaji suffered deep wounds to his back and face.
According to rural SP Aiswarya Dongre, “A case was registered against the group and 11 women have been arrested. Even though reports on sharing of nude photos had emerged, we don’t have any information on the same. We have asked the women to file a complaint and it will be probed in detail.”
Former members of Emperor Emmanuel Church in Kerala targetted for leaving the church
Notably, this is not the first time the Emperor Emmanuel Church in Kerala, which is a gated community with over 200 families, has been in the news for such disputes between its faithful and the dissenting members. In fact, the residents living near the sect’s gated community reported frequent incidents of violence in front of the church gate. A social media campaign recently claimed that the church was looting people in the name of faith.
According to reports, the church was once under the intelligence wing’s scrutiny because of concerns of mass suicide due to doomsday prophecies in 2012.
In 2021, Olympian Mayookha Johny alleged her friend was raped by a member of the same Church. The accused and his friends had claimed that the rape charges were false. They said the allegations were being fabricated as a sequel to a dispute in the Emperor Emmanuel Church. They revealed that there were more than 50 complaints that had been filed in six different police stations at the instance of the church followers against the dissenting members of the church and the rape case was among them.
