Kerala HC denies anticipatory bail to 2 church priests

Agencies
July 4, 2018

Kochi, Jul 4: The Kerala High Court today declined to grant two church priests any interim protection from arrest over sexual assault charges and adjourned the hearing on their anticipatory bail pleas till Monday.

Sony Varghese, 42, and Job Mathew, 40, of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, moved the anticipatory bail pleas in the high court apprehending arrest in the case.

Adjourning the case to Monday, Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan declined their pleas not to arrest them till further hearing of the case.

The court also directed police to produce the complaint of sexual harassment of the woman filed by her husband and other documents related to the case.

Varghese and Mathew moved the high court a day after the Crime Branch wing of Kerala Police slapped rape charges against four of the five Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church priests, including them, in the case.

The priests, in separate, but identical pleas, rejected the woman's allegations that they had sexually assaulted her.

They alleged that the crime was registered against them "solely at the instance of the political pressure exerted by certain vested interests to derive political mileage".

Both claimed that even if the charges by the alleged victim in their entirety were assumed to be correct, without them admitting, the same does not make out an offence under Section 376 of IPC.

They contended that the entire allegation revealed that sexual intercourse, if any, was fully consensual.

Meanwhile, Crime Branch Inspector General S Sreejith, who is heading the probe, visited the headquarters of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in Kottayam and discussed case-related matters with its supreme head, Baselios Marthoma Paulose II.

Sreejith said the head priest told him to take all legal steps correctly in the case.

He also offered all help to police in the probe.

The crime branch had yesterday registered an FIR and slapped rape charges against the priests after recording the woman's statement.

Last month, the man from Pathanamthitta district accused the five priests of using his wife's secret confession to blackmail and sexually abuse her.

The incident came to light after an audio clip containing the man's purported conversation with a church official alleging sexual abuse of his wife by the priests was widely circulated on social media.

The investigation team had recorded the statement of the victim's husband earlier.

The man had reportedly handed over copies of evidence against the priests to the crime branch team.

A Crime Branch probe was ordered into the case last week by state police chief Loknath Behara.

Veteran CPI(M) leader and chairman of the Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission V S Achuthanandan and the National Commission for Women had written to Behara, demanding a probe into the charges.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Nagpur, July 21: In a shocking incident, an 11-year-old boy allegedly killed self in Maharashtra's Nagpur city after being reprimanded by his mother for buying a samosa, police said on Tuesday.

Veeru Natthu Sahu was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his home in Ganga Nagar in Gittikhadan area on Sunday night, an official said.

The deceased boy's family was struggling to make ends meet after their small business was hit because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, he said.

The Class 7 student had taken Rs 10 from home without asking his mother and bought a samosa, which was then eaten by his elder brother, the official said.

The boy's mother scolded him for taking money without her permission and asked him to get the snack for himself, following which the distraught minor allegedly went into the kitchen and hanged himself using a saree, he said.

The Gittikhadan police have registered a case of accidental death in this regard, the official added.

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News Network
June 17,2020

Moradabad, Jun 17: Two children died after they accidentally got locked inside a car while playing in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad, the police said.

Four children, aged between 4 and 7 years, locked themselves inside the car while playing and were found unconscious soon after, the police added.

"All four children were found unconscious in a car and they were taken to the hospital. Two of them died and the other two are undergoing treatment at the hospital," said Amit Kumar Anand, superintendent of police (city) Moradabad.

The children were related to each other, the police said.

The man who owns the car said the children had locked themselves inside. "When we reached, the children were in an unconscious state. Two of the four children died. The incident occurred around 8 am."

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Agencies
June 29,2020

Khammam, Jun 29: In an outrageous incident, some youths beat up a monkey and strung it up on a tree to death while also releasing dogs to attack it in Ammapalem village in Telangana's Khammam district.

A video of the heinous incident of animal cruelty has surfaced on social media, in which the monkey is seen hanging by a rope from a tree, desperately flailing its limbs while a couple of dogs attempt to pounce on and torment the hapless simian. After a while, several men are seen in the video approaching the animal with long sticks.

Forest officials have charged one villager Venkateshwar Rao under Wildlife Protection Act along with the other accused and arrested them. They were released on bail on Saturday and are set to be summoned for questioning by forest officials.

Rao had spotted the monkey, which had entered his residence apparently in search of food and beat it with a stick and hung it from a tree with the help of his friend.

In the video of the incident, Rao could also be seen instructing his pet dogs to bite the monkey, which was fighting for its life.

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