CSI Bishop to appear before ED

Thiruvananthapuram, July 27 dmanewsdesk:  Church of South India (CSI) Bishop, A Dharmaraj Rasalam, is scheduled to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday with regard to the probe over corruption allegations at the church’s Karakonam medical college.

The Bishop, who was stopped on Tuesday from travelling to England to take part in the Lambeth Conference, was also served a notice to appear before the ED in Kochi.

Church sources told PTI that the Bishop has already reached Kochi and would appear before the ED at 11 AM the time mentioned in the notice.

On Tuesday, a church official had told PTI that the Bishop “was supposed to attend the Lambeth Conference which is convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It’s a gathering of bishops from across the Anglican Communion.”

“However, he was stopped at the airport without any prior notice. Even though the ED had conducted an inspection yesterday, they did not warn that the Bishop must not leave the country to attend the conference,” the official had said.

The ED had on Monday conducted raids at institutions linked to the church over a case related to Karakonam medical college.

The raid was in connection with a case registered for allegedly collecting huge amounts of money from students, promising them a medical seat at the Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College in Karakonam, which is run by the church.

However, Fr. C R Godwin, the Director of the Christian Education Board, had told the media that the Crime Branch had already conducted an enquiry in the matter.

Earlier, in February, the High Court had quashed a report of the Crime Branch giving the church authorities a clean chit in the Karakonam case.

Source: PTI