Author: M.G. Radhakrishnan
Publication: India Today
Date: May 28, 2007
Introduction: Charges of rape and murder levelled
against a high-profile Christian spiritual centre in Kerala have brought Congress
and CPI(M) together against the police and BJP
It has all the trappings of a sensational
criminal story-a high-profile spiritual centre, rocked by allegations of murder,
rape, drug abuse. The Divine Retreat Centre (DRC) at Thrissur, Kerala-the
country's largest Christian meditation and healing institution run by the
Vincentian Catholic priests-which attracts over 10,000 people every day for
its "divine" prayer and faith-healing sessions held simultaneously
in seven languages, faces a series of stunning charges in an fir filed by
a special investigation team (SIT) of the Kerala police recently. Criminal
cases have been registered against Father George Panakkal, director, Father
Mathew Thadathil, procurator, and other office-bearers of the DRC, which runs
a host of institutions including a general hospital, a mental care home, a
home for aids patients, an orphanage, a de-addiction centre, an old age centre,
a Bible college, a home for widows, and even a marriage bureau.
The charges are not easy to dismiss. The investigation
against the 15-year-old centre, headquartered in a four-acre campus near the
national highway in Muringur, Chalakkudy, was ordered by the Kerala High Court
and carried out by an SIT headed by an IGP nominated by the court, with stern
warning against any interference by the Government. The court dismissed a
complaint filed by the centre against police raids on its premises, home to
the sick and elderly. Following this, the centre approached the Supreme Court
with a special leave petition against the investigation. Last month, the apex
court issued notices to the chief secretary of the state, SIT and the IGP
in charge.
The fir has created havoc in the state as
almost all political organisations have expressed displeasure at "attempts
to denigrate" the popular and powerful DRC. A few weeks before it was
filed, Pinarayi Vijayan, state secretary of the ruling CPI(M), had visited
the centre and slammed the police raid as "a high-handed act against
the centre, which was doing a great, humanitarian task of helping the needy
and the sick". Former chief minister Oommen Chandy of the Congress also
expressed displeasure at the police's "rude ways towards a centre of
meditation". But organisations attached to BJP have urged authorities
to shut down the centre.
It all began with an anonymous letter received
by the high court in October 2005. The letter and the compact discs sent along
with it contained many serious allegations against the DRC, including rape,
suspected murder, financial misappropriation including violation of foreign
exchange regulations, and wrongful inclusion of the names of inmates in the
electoral list. The most sensational among the charges was the alleged suppression,
by the centre, of a complaint made by a former inmate that she was raped by
the procurator. It was also alleged that a number of unidentified dead bodies
were found in and around the centre. In response to this, high court judge
Justice K. Padmanabhan Nair ordered the police to investigate the charges
and also directed an SIT to be constituted under Inspector General Vinson
M. Paul. The team conducted raids at DRC in September last year, seizing documents
and videotaping the complex. On the basis of testimonials by witnesses against
the centre, the fir includes the following charges: between 1991 and 2006,
as many as 974 people died-not all were natural deaths-at the centre and the
dead bodies disposed of without investigation; many developed mental illnesses
after going to DRC, particularly after unauthorised administration of psychotropic
drugs; patients were kept in forced confinement; the centre's medical institutions
have no requisite licences or statutory facilities; and DRC had obtained pecuniary
favours from the Government by misrepresenting or withholding facts. Mariyapalana
Society, an NGO run by local Catholics, also complained that the centre had
tried to receive foreign donations by manipulating documents.
"Everything at DRC is shrouded in mystery.
They do not respect laws regarding how to run a hospital or what to do if
a death occurs there. They have not given satisfactory explanations for the
charges made against them," says a senior SIT official. But the priests
dismiss all charges as baseless. "We strongly feel there is a conspiracy
to denigrate the name of the centre," says Panakkal. However, he refuses
to divulge the details of the conspiracy, as the case is about to come up
in the court. "There could have been 974 deaths at the centre. But don't
forget that at our home for aids patients, our old age home and the general
hospital, we have at least 400 people on the verge of dying at any point of
time," he says, dismissing the charge that dead bodies were buried without
intimating the authorities. The director also cites a report of an earlier
police investigation, which had dismissed these charges levelled earlier against
the centre. "The IG heading SIT has not visited DRC in the last two years,
nor has he met us to find out what we have to say. It is unconstitutional
to vest all powers in a police officer without any government control,"
he says. Dr K.P. Hormis, a psychiatrist attached to the centre and a former
civil surgeon, denies that drugs were administered without his authorisation,
and that there were any unnatural deaths. But does the hospital have the required
licence? "We are not running a mental hospital, but a mental care home,
for which we have a licence from the local panchayat. We have also applied
for Government registration," says Panakkal, adding that DRC hasn't received
any complaint from the state Drugs Control Department, which is in charge
of monitoring the use of drugs. According to the priest, the fir was prepared
on the basis of allegations made by witnesses who were long-time opponents
of the centre.
The centre also alleges that evidence that
proved wrong many of the allegations made in the original anonymous letter
to the court is not mentioned in the fir. "The allegation that a woman
was raped and impregnated by a priest at the centre was proved false by a
DNA test. The finding by an earlier police investigation that no unnatural
deaths had occurred at the centre has also been ignored. It proves the SIT
investigation was neither transparent nor honest," says the director.
DRC says the filing of the fir also was suspect.
It was filed hurriedly on the day the Supreme Court issued notices to the
SIT in response to the petition filed by the centre. "Why did they take
so long to file the fir? Why did they file it a day before the case came up
in the Supreme Court and got it signed by the magistrate at his home at 10
in the night?" asks Panakkal, adding that the police raid was completely
high-handed and that the sick inmates were yet to come out of the shock. "They
even made a videofilm of the aids patients here, which is against universal
law," he says.
The fir has put the political parties which
have supported DRC on the defensive. "We are not against the law taking
its course. What we had objected to was the high-handedness of the police,"
says Vaikom Viswan, convener of the ruling Left Democratic Front. Congress
leaders, too, have chosen to lie low. Interestingly, the strongest defence
of DRC after the filing of the fir has come from Janapaksham, a dissident
group of BJP. "It is unfair to level baseless allegations against an
institution which serves the people," says its leader K. Raman Pillai,
former state president of BJP. While the reputation of the centre is clearly
at stake, charges continue to fly thick and fast.