According to an official, 5 Kerala priests of the Kottayam-headquartered Malankara Orthodox have seen suspended over allegations of sexually exploiting a woman from the same church.
Secretary of the Church, Biju Oommen said as soon as they received a complaint from the husband of the victim, they took immediate action.
The Church has acted in the utmost responsible manner…today as things stand, the 5 are suspects. Commission has been appointed to probe the episode.
Biji Oommen said,”The probe is on and when the report comes, the Church will again act on it.”
The husband said that one of the priests who first exploited his wife was blackmailing her. When she sought help on this from another priest, he too, threatened her and shared her contact with another fellow priest and in the end, she came under the duress from at least 5 priests.
Biju Oommen added,”We are certainly worried about the huge publicity that the incident has generated and we suspect that there are vested interests who are out to malign our Church in the social media.”
A police complaint is not yet filed by the victim.