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
January 20,2020

Ahmedabad, Jan 20: Cops in Gandhinagar fell in a catch-22 situation when a state government employee approached them with a complaint that the 26-year-old woman class teacher of his 14-year-old son had gone missing taking his son in tow. The man, who works at Udyog Bhavan in Gandhinagar said the woman had seduced his teenage son, who studies in class VIII and taken him away with her. The boy had gone missing from 4pm on Friday, and the classteacher was also missing.

A police official said the woman teacher had been too intimate with the allegedly missing boy for around a year, and the school authorities had recently rebuked them. “As their relationship was unaccepted, they left their homes on Friday,” he said. It was rare to find a case of a woman teacher eloping with her teenage student, the official added.

An FIR for elopement under Section 363 IPC has been registered with Kalol city police in Gandhinagar district. The complaint stated the teacher is a resident of Darbari chawl in Kalol town.

“When I reached home at around 7pm, I found my son missing. My wife told me he had left home at around 4pm. We searched for him in the neighbourhood and among relatives, but couldn’t trace him,” claims the teenage boy’s father in the FIR. “I went to the teacher’s house but they were not there,” the man stated.

Inspector K K Desai of Kalol city police said the missing duo could not be traced as they were not carrying cellphones.

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Agencies
July 7,2020

Meerut: The licence of a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut has been suspended after a video showing its staff member providing fake Covid-19 report had gone viral.

"A video had gone viral in Meerut. We have registered a case in this regard. We have suspended the licence of the nursing home. Today, we have sealed it also. Strict action will be taken against anybody who will do something like this in this time of crisis,” said Anil Dhingra, District Magistrate, Meerut.

In the video, the person can be heard saying that they provide Covid-19 negative report for Rs 2,500, Dhingra stated.

Meerut CMO Rajkumar said, “In the video, a man from the hospital can be heard saying that he can arrange COVID-19 negative report and the person can get operation or other things done. We have identified the man. We have suspended the licence of the hospital and an FIR has been registered.”

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Agencies
March 22,2020

Thane, Mar 22: Eight men were arrested at Kalyan in the district on Sunday as they were found playing cricket during the 'Janata curfew' being observed to check the spread of coronavirus, police said.

They were playing cricket at Kala Talao Maidan in the afternoon, police said.

Police also detained a boy in this connection, an official said.

"Action was taken against them for defying the prohibitory orders issued by the Thane Police Commissionerate.

They also went against the 'Janata curfew' being observed to curb the spread of coronavirus," the police official said.

The Mahatma Phule Chowk Police Station registered an offence against the accused under IPC sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 290 (public nuisance).

They were also booked under the Maharashtra Police Act as well as the National Disaster Act 2005, the official said.

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