March 12, 2018
Kochi: Catholic church head in Kerala Cardinal Mar George Allencherry and two priests were among four booked in the church land sale scam today.
Cardinal Allencherry is the prime accused. The others are Fr Joshi Puthuva, Fr Sebastian Vadakkumbadam and real estate broker Saju Varghese.
Cases have been registered under IPC 420 for cheating, IPC 402 breach of trust, 406, and 120 B conspiracy.
The case was registered after Kerala High Court flayed police for dilly dallying to register FIR against the priests in connection with sale of church land.
The court made the observations while hearing a petition filed by an individual disputing the sale and seeking police case against the sellers.
The cardinal, who is the head of the Syro Malabar Church, had challenged the single bench order in a division bench of the High Court. Cardinal Allencherry is also the Archbishop of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese.
The Syro Malabar Church has over 30 dioceses in the country and four in the US, Canada, Australia and Britain.