The Kerala High Court took a strong note of the rapes by the priests of the Christian church, decided not to grant any interim protection to the two Christian godmen who are booked for the sexual assault.
The Kerala High Court Tuesday declined to grant two church priests any interim protection from arrest over sexual assault chargeshttps://t.co/t4Gf7gIvRG
— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) July 3, 2018
Father Abraham Varghese of the Niranom diocese had gone to the court after a case was registered by the Kerala police against four priests, including him, under non-bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code. The alleged rapists were of the view that the case is fabricated by the police.
Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan declined their appeal of not to face arrest till the next hearing. The court did not provide for any protection for the accused rapists and adjourned the court till Monday. Varghese, 42, and Job Mathew, 40, of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, moved to the Kerala High court for anticipatory bail pleas, after the Crime Branch wing of Kerala Police slapped rape charges against four of the five Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church priests.
The Kerala high court directed the police to produce all the necessary documents to the court, including the complaint filed by the husband. The crime branch had registered an FIR and charged the Christian priests with rape charges after recording the woman’s statement.
The alleged rapists claim that case against them are purely politically motivated and due to the pressure exerted by the vested interests. They altogether rejected the allegations of any sexual harassment towards the woman
Interestingly, they argued that the entire allegation revealed that sexual intercourse, if any, was fully consensual.
The matter emerged in the past week when a married woman accused five priests belonging to the Malankara Orthodox Church of blackmail and sexual abuse. As per the victim’s husband, his wife was abused by the priests for a whopping 380 times. It seems that the sexual abuses in the churches have become a worrying trend in the society recently.
