Bangalore: Police crack Fr K J Thomas murder case: 3 arrested, more likely
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Mar 21: Almost a year from the day of the ghastly murder of the soft-spoken and warm hearted Fr K J Thomas (62), Rector of St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary in Bangalore on the night of March 31 last year, the Bangalore police have finally succeeded in cracking the case with the arrest of three persons, including two priests Fr William Patrick and Fr Illyas and a layperson Peter.
''When they (arrested persons) were subjected to detailed interrogation, they confessed to the offence,” declared the Karnataka Director General of Police Lalrokhuma Pachau at a largely attended news conference on Friday.
City Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar and Joint Commissioner Pranab Mohanty, both of whom were present at the news conference, said a few more arrests were likely and the investigation is not fully completed.
The arrested trio will be produced before the magistrate and we will seek their custody and carry out further investigation, when more details are likely to come out, Auradkar said. ''We conducted the investigation covering all angles. Further details and more arrests are expected,” he said.
The Joint Commissioner of Police Pranab Mohanty, who personally monitored the investigation, claimed that the accused had ''meticulously planned” the entire operation and carefully chosen the night of March 31 as they knew there would very few persons in the Seminary due to the Easter holidays.
Asked why the Procurator of the Seminary Fr Patrick Xavier, who was staying in the adjacent room as Fr KJ Thomas on the fateful night, and was also subjected to polygraph and narco tests, has been left, Mohanty said: ''We cannot reveal all the details of the investigation. Yes, there are questions regarding why Fr Xavier did not respond to the noise and commotion or inform the police immediately after the incident. But we need clinching evidence. The investigation is still going on and we are examining all angles. We will be able to get more details only after subjecting the accused to further investigation.”
To a question on whether the language controversy dogging the Bangalore Archdiocese, with some of the Kannada speaking priests and their supporters locking horns with the Archbishop of Bangalore and even the Seminary authorities and even demanding a separate Kannada seminary, was behind the murder, the DGP said: ''There are many factors and aspects to the case. We are neither confirming or ruling out the involvement of the so-called pro-Kannada elements and the role of the language fanatics. It is also not possible to disclose details when the investigation is still incomplete.”
While Fr William Patrick, the Parish Priest of the Kengeri Church belonging to the Archdiocese of Bangalore, is the cousin of the Procurator Fr Patrick Xavier, while the other accused Fr Illyas, is a religious priest belonging to Carmelites Congregation, who had since been transferred to Gulbarga. Both the priests are reportedly known to be the ardent supporters of the Catholics espousing the cause of Kannada speaking priests. Peter is said to be a layperson sympathetic and his antecedents are not known.
Describing the investigation into the murder case of Fr KJ Thomas as a ''very sensitive and high profile case,” the DGP said it was important to know whether it for gain or out of personal enmity.
Fingerprints were taken from the spot and matched with our enormous data base of known offenders in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Pondicherry. In addition, a large volume of call details were analysed and more than 2000 persons were examined, he explained.
''Because of the sensitive nature of the case, the Commissioner himself examined and interrogated some of the suspects. While 10 persons were subjected to polygraph tests, 5 persons were subjected to narco analysis at the Forensic Security Laboratory (FSL), Ahmedabad in Gujarat,” said the DGP and disclosed that from all the above technical and other investigations, ''it came to light that Fr Illyas along with his associates were involved in the offence.”
Auradkar mentioned that the deceased Fr K J Thomas had been working as the Rector of the Seminary for a long time and Fr Illyas and the other accused were ''very unhappy with this” and also there was ''lot of resentment among the accused that many of them were being sidelined for important posts and that only a few persons were always occupying important posts.”
The accused hatched a criminal conspiracy to break into the Seminary and obtain important documents pertaining to lands that were granted to the seminary and the night March 31 was carefully chosen as the accused were fully aware of the fact that the seminarians and other priests would be away on leave on account of the Easter season and only Fr Thomas and a few others would be in the Seminary, the DGP said.
The accused priests Fr Illyas and Fr William Patrick and Peter and others met near the Yeshwantpur circle, which is hardly a km away from the Seminary, on March 31 night and walked up to the seminary ''armed with rods and other deadly weapons.” On reaching the seminary, the accused began to break open the locks of the Seminary rooms and started searching for the documents. While they were searching the documents, Fr Thomas came out of the room and spotted the accused persons and on being questioned, they ''assaulted him leading to his death,” said the DGP adding: ''They left no clue behind for this ghastly act.”
In spite of there being no ''sufficient clues,” the Bangalore police were ''successful in cracking the case,” said the DGP adding: A pulsar bike and two mobiles which were used by the accused have been seized. ''Remaining accused will be arrested in due course,” he claimed.
Answering questions, the City Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar said the filing of a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court by the relatives of Fr KJ Thomas demanding a CBI probe into the murder was not a factor in making arrests of the three persons even before completion of the entire investigation. However, the legal tussle in getting permission for conducting narco tests did hamper the investigation to some extent as the matter resulted in almost three months delay, he said.
The 62-year-old Fr Kochupuryil J Thomas was born on May 13, 1951 at Etturmanoor near Kottayam in Kerala. After his high school studies in his native place, he joined the Diocese of Ooty as a minor seminarian due to the fraternal and vocational influence of his uncle, who is a priest still alive. He did his major seminary studies and had formation at St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary/Institute in Bangalore.
He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Ooty on May 14, 1980. Subsequently, he completed his Master’s Degree in History from Mysore University and another Master’s degree in Political Science from Madras University. Later, he completed his M.Ed. from Madura Kamaraj University. He served the Ooty Diocese for about 8 years as Assistant Parish Priest and school principal.
Having recognized the caliber, character, capacity and piety of Fr Thomas, the Board of St Peter’s Seminary selected and appointed him as a staff, formator and lecturer starting with the year 1988. He was sent for higher studies in Rome in Systematic Theology and came with a Doctorate with flying colours in 1983 from Urbaniana University.
The Board of Bishops, who had observed his simplicity, honesty, hard work, dedication and the spirit of austerity, appointed Fr KJ as Procurator for two terms of five years from 1994. Concurrently, he also held the office of the Department of Systematic Theology for many years with distinction. He was installed as the President of the St Peter’s Pontifical Institute in 2009 and renominated to the same post in 2009 and named as the Rector of St Peter’s Pontifical Major Seminary.
Karnataka Director General of Police Lalrokhuma Pachau announced cash awards to Additional Commissioner of Police Siddappa of KR Puram, ACP Seshadri and Police Inspector K L Krishna of Yeshwanthpur and Geetha Kulkarni of City Crime Branch as well as Sandeep Patil, Abhishek Goel and V S D’Souza for their role in the investigation.
Meanwhile, a section of the Kannada speaking priests reportedly planned a demonstration in front of the Archbishop’s Residence over the arrest of two of the Kannada speaking priests in the murder case of Fr K J Thomas. The Archbishop of Bangalore Dr Bernard Moras was, however, away on his official engagements since morning.
According to informed sources, the Archbishop of Bangalore has reportedly asked the lawyers of the Archdiocese of Bangalore to apply for bail for Fr William Patrick as he belongs to the Archdiocese while the Congregation of Carmelites is understood to have engaged a lawyer for securing bail for Fr Illyas.