Munambam Waqf land row snowballs into political issue amid by-elections in Kerala
Union Minister Suresh Gopi recently met the 610 families of Munambam village who are protesting against the Waqf board's claim over their land.
In a major setback to the Syro-Malabar Church, Kerala High Court on Tuesday ordered a probe against Cardinal Mar George Alencherry and others in connection with a controversial land deal, which had allegedly incurred huge loss to the Church.
The court ordered the police to file a case against Cardinal Alencherry and three others, including two priests ~ Archdiocese procurator Joshy Puthuva and Sebastian Vadakumpadan ~ and a middleman, Saju Varghese, who was the real estate dealer for the land sale.
The cardinal’s advocate had told the court that there was no need for a police probe as a magisterial-level probe was being conducted on the deal. However, the court said conducting a police probe was not a hindrance to a magisterial probe.
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The court observed that there was prima facie evidence to show a big controversy and breach of trust have occurred in the land deal. A detailed probe was required to collect more evidence, the court said.
The court condemned the cardinal during the proceedings . It observed that the cardinal was not a king and nobody was above the law.
The contention that the Major Arch Bishop was the supreme authority of the Church cannot be accepted, even the canon law does not consider the cardinal as the supreme authority, the court said.
The state government, too, came in for criticism by the court for not having acted on complaints on the grounds that it was a ‘civil’ matter.
The case involves the sale of church property in Ernakulam district, which was allegedly sold at less than half price. Cardinal Alencherry is one of the four cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church in India.
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