The arrest of a Catholic bishop of the Eastern-rite Syro-Malankara Church in India and five of his priests on charges of illegal sand mining has “no religious implication.”
This was the pronouncement made by Bishop Joshua Mar Ignathios of Mavelikara, vice president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, in a statement to the media.
“We have started the legal procedures and we are sure that we will get justice for [Bishop Samuel Mar Irenios Kaattukallil of Pathanamthitta],” said the prelate in a report on AsiaNews.
“There is no religious implication in this arrest,” he said, adding that the Church will have to prove the bishop’s innocence.
“We know the bishop very well. He is a charismatic person,” said Bishop Ignathios.
Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district court earlier ordered the arrest of the bishop and five of his priests — Jose Chamakala, Shaji Thomas Manikulam, George Samuel, Jijo James, and Jose Kalaviyal.
The accused allegedly extracted sand illegally from the Tamirabarani (copper jar) river near Pottal, a village in Tirunelveli district, some 625 km southwest of Chennai, Tamil Nadu capital.
A statement from Father Joel P John Poweth, public relations officer of Pathanamthitta diocese, said the diocese owns 300 acres of land that was leased to one Manuel George.
“The diocesan officials could not go there for the past two years because of the COVID pandemic,” said the priest in a report on Matters India.
He said that when the diocese came to know that George had breached the contract, it initiated legal action. George was arrested earlier at Kottayam in Kerala, according to the report.
“It was Manuel George, the farmer to whom the land had been rented, who was also arrested, who shifted all responsibility to the diocese of Pathanamthitta,” said Bishop Ignathios in his statement.
Father Paul Thelakat, editor of the magazine Light of Truth, described the incident to AsiaNews as “an unfortunate mistake.”
“The diocese should have been more careful about how the land they had rented was used,” said the priest.
“I am saddened by the legal trouble in which they got themselves, now they find themselves paying the consequences,” he added.
