Fr Jaison Kollanur, former director of the Kerala Catholic Youth Movement (KCYM), and three other KCYM activists surrendered before the police here on Saturday in connection with attempted human trafficking.
They were released after being produced before the Aluva Chief Judicial Magistrate as the Kerala High Court had sanctioned an anticipatory bail last week.
According to the police, the other three KCYM activists are Jomon Thomas, Raju Thomas and Tittu Thomas.
There are six accused in the case, in which Tom Baby, director of Shadwell’s International Business School and his manager Suby Kurian, are the first and second accused. They were arrested a few months ago, and received bail last month.
The investigating officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police Ammose Mamman, said that the Kerala High Court had set a condition for issuing the anticipatory bail that all the accused should surrender before Saturday failing which the anticipatory bail will be cancelled.
They were also asked to deposit a bond of `25,000, surrender their passports, and they were instructed not to leave the state and asked to be present before the investigating officer every Friday. The court had cautioned that if the accused make any attempt to influence witnesses or tamper with evidence, the bail will be cancelled. The police officials said that all of them have completed the procedures as directed by High Court.
Mamman said that the investigation has not been completed, and that some of the victims who were about to be trafficked are yet to be identified. He said that the accused, including Fr Jaison, were cooperative during the investigation, but when they realised the seriousness of the case, they absconded.
Fr Jaison allegedly charged `50,000 as commission from 35 persons who would be sent as unskilled labourers to USA in the pretext of attending an education meet. The police team which is probing the case also found that Fr Jaison had conducted classes in Thiruvananthapuram in this regard.
The people were to be sent to USA using the certificates of Christian youth organisations and Shadwell’s business school which US embassy detected to be fake and informed Kochi police about it. Kochi police registered case against Tom Baby, Jaison and six others.