THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : After a lull, the MM Cathedral at LMS Junction in Thiruvananthapuram is in the limelight again.
The CSITA Stakeholders Association, Kerala, has alleged that A Dharmaraj Rasalam, CSI Church moderator and bishop of the South Kerala diocese, who has been slapped with more than 13 criminal cases, is set to travel to the UK to escape from the cases.
Bishop Rasalam is scheduled to attend an Anglican Church meeting in the UK. A majority of the cases against the bishop pertain to the Karakonam CSI Medical College bribery case.
Bishop Rasalam was in the news in 2019 when the Admission Supervisory Committee for Medical Education - headed by R Rajendra Babu - had recommended criminal proceedings against him and other officials of the Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College, Karakonam.
More recently, the bishop made headlines when a major section of the parishioners belonging to the former MM Church (now MM Cathedral) took issue with him for converting it into a cathedral. The development saw a smaller church being dismantled, allegedly by those supporting the bishop.
With the authorities and the police favouring the bishop, more than 800 parishioners severed ties with him and have since moved legally. Now, they are holding Sunday mass at an old church belonging to the Salvation Army at Kowdiar on a rent of Rs 15,000 per day.
CSITA Stakeholders Association general-secretary Jacob Mathew told The New Indian Express that Bishop Rasalam has been involved in more than 13 cases, including cheating and misappropriation of funds.
"Bishop Rasalam and Bishop BN Fen of CSI Church, Aluva, are going to the UK to attend the Lambeth Conference held once in 10 years at the University of Kent, Canterbury Cathedral and the Lambeth Palace from July 26 to August 8. The conference has been convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is learnt that they will not return to India, so as to avoid the criminal cases pending against them. They have enough support from the foreign churches to keep away from our judicial system," said Jacob Mathew.
He has shot off letters to the secretary with the ministry of external affairs, immigration commissioner in New Delhi, state immigration department headquarters in Kochi, enforcement directorate, and also to the DGP.
This newspaper is also in possession of an order issued by the CBI's special crime branch in Thiruvananthapuram - dated March 23, 2022 - to Canara Bank Chief Vigilance Officer B Uma Shankar, recommending a CBI probe against Bishop Rasalam.
The order says that Bishop Rasalam had illegally pledged religious property of CSITA worth `20 crore by “self-styled power agents” of the church in collusion with the officials of the Canara Bank at the Pettah branch in Thiruvananthapuram.