KOCHI: A woman, who was allegedly raped by a priest under Thamarassery diocese, on Tuesday informed the Kerala High Court that though she had made a complaint before the diocese’s bishop regarding the sexual assault by the priest on June 23, 2017, no action was taken. Hence, she lodged a complaint with the Chevayur police, the woman told the court, opposing the anticipatory bail plea of Fr Manoj Plakoottathil.
The Chevayur police told the court that the accused went to the house of the 46-year-old woman and raped her when she was alone on June 15, 2017.Fr Manoj was then the vicar of Chevayur Nithyasahaya Matha Church. The prosecution said the victim was a visitor of the church and had an acquaintance with the priest. Exploiting this, the accused went to her house. The accused is still at large and he is highly influential, the prosecution submitted.
The priest was booked under Sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.
P Vijayabhanu, counsel for the accused, submitted that the priest was falsely implicated in the crime.
The counsel also handed over the phone call records showing repeated calls made by the victim to the priest. She had also sent threatening voice messages that she would commit suicide if the priest did not call her.
The court directed him to file the call details as per the law and asked to hand over copies to the victim and the prosecution. The court further directed the police to verify the call data. The court will consider the case on December 19.