Priest held guilty of raping minor

KERALA

A SPECIAL court in Kerala’s Ernakulam on Thursday sentenced a Catholic priest to double life imprisonment after finding him guilty of raping a minor girl at his parsonage.

This is the first time in Kerala that a Catholic priest has been punished under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The convict, Edwin Figarez, 41, has been fined Rs 2.15 lakh that would be given to the 14year-old victim. His jail terms would run concurrently.

The priest’s brother, Silvester Figarez, was sentenced to oneyear jail term for helping the convict flee out of the country after police registered the rape case. A government doctor, Ajitha Rajasekharan, was found guilty of not reporting the victim’s medical examination report, which had indicated rape, to the police. She was not punished considering that she was on probation.

The prosecution said that Figarez was the parish priest at Lourde Matha Church, Puthenvelikkara, under Kottapuram diocese when the abuse came to light in 2015. Figarez, who has several compositions of Christian devotional songs to his credit, allegedly lured the girl exploiting her interest in music. Often, he used to take the victim to the parsonage under the pretext of music classes. The abuse continued for three months before it was reported in March 2015. The girl confided in her mother after she became worried about her daughter’s behavioural changes.

The priest, who was removed from his position, flew to Dubai for an evangelical meeting after the police booked him. He surrendered in December last year after the high court rejected his anticipatory bail. The priest’s two brothers were held for helping him go into hiding.