Media Release

Hassan, Oct 11: Hezine Quadros, a senior community member of the Christian community has complained that the grants disbursed to Arsikere's St Mary’s Church Association here have been misused.

Addressing a press meet in the city with relevant documents, Quadros said that Arsikere's St Mary’s Church has a 130-year-old history and is renowned for all the community welfare programmes and activities that the church continues to do. Quadros claimed that in 2008, the then parish priest, Fr A Shantaraj had unofficially established an association in the name of the church and used this association to obtain a large amount of funds as grants from the government and misused these funds.

"As per the rules, it is the parish council that has to undertake any official development work for St Mary’s Church. Although there was an existing parish council to oversee implementation of development work, in the year 2008, the then parish priest Fr A Shantharaj who was also the then president of the parish council had unofficially established an association called St Mary’s Church Association by creating a committee of 7 members and got it registered by the district registrar of cooperative societies, Hassan," Quadros said.

"Further, Fr A Shantaraj has also crookedly grabbed the land belonging to the church. He has illegally transferred the church’s assets to others," he alleged.

Further Quadros stated that for any church to receive any official grants from any department or to receive donation from the public it would necessitate that the documents for such grants/ donations receive the approval of the bishop. "However, Fr Shantaraj along with 7 members formed the unofficial St Mary’s Church Association with ulterior motive," he said.

"We would like to illustrate this with an example. The land belonging to St Mary’s Church was made to be in the name of the secretary of the unofficially established St Mary’s Church Association. The president of this association, Fr Shantaraj has, in the name of his unofficial association, submitted two audit reports – one to the minority welfare department and another to the deputy registrar of cooperative societies. It is clear that this was all done with the intention of misuse of government funds.

"In this way, he has tampered with the documents and for the construction of a new community hall has obtained Rs 50 lac from the government in the form of grants and indicated that the other equal part of funds will be borne by the church. A total of Rs 1 crore in cost was indicated by providing an estimation report and blueprints of the land, in which Rs 50 lac was received as grants from 2012 to 2017 from the minority welfare department and the other equal part was indicated as contribution from the church, for which they collected money from the public all for the purposes of building a new community hall, which should have been completed.

"However, the work for the community hall only has half constructed walls and RCC and the work has been stalled such that the structure now looks like a dilapidated skeleton resembling a haunted house. As per the documents provided to the departments concerned and using the share of funds from the church, the community hall construction should have been completed. On examination of the documents, they indicate that the funds for the construction, Rs 50 lac was released even before construction and it indicates that the officers and Fr A Shantaraj of the unofficial St Mary’s Church Association were involved together in the misuse of the funds," Quadros said.

"As per the rules of the Catholic Church, a transferred priest has to surrender all his responsibilities before moving. A priest that is transferred has no authority over the church where he used to serve. However, Fr Shantaraj still continues to be the president unofficially. Fr Shantaraj also has a bank account in Arsikere, into which all received funds are deposited and misused," he claimed.

Quadros further alleged that the construction work was not done. On complete examination, it is clear that the misuse of government funds has been done along with close involvement of officers concerned, he said.

"After the allegations of misuse of funds came to light, there have been conflicts within the unofficial association. Some individuals have also resigned from the association. Also, in the registered bylaws of this unofficial St Mary’s Church Association, there is nothing related to community service and welfare," said Quadros, adding that the "bylaws of this unofficial association have been fashioned in such a way as to run the association per their own convenience to misuse the received funds for their own personal purposes."

"The president of the unofficial St Mary’s Church Association, Fr Shantaraj, aside from this misuse of funds in Arsikere, was also involved in a large scale land scandal in relation to Chikkamagaluru's St Joseph’s Educational Society and the case was directed through the court to the Chikkamagaluru town police station. The case is still under investigation and Fr Shantaraj is the second accused in this case. Pertaining to this case of land scam in Chikkamagaluru, Fr A Shantaraj had tampered with official documents, lied to government officials and provided false documents thereby committing fraud. Therefore, he was removed from his primary membership of St Joseph’s Educational Society. In the same manner he has done illegal activities in many cases. It is clear that he has misused the funds that was granted from the government for the construction of a new community hall," Quadros said.

"All the above said matter has been brought to the notice of bishop of Chikkamagaluru T Anthony Swamy repeatedly, however he is continuing to defend Fr Shantharaj. Although we have provided all documentary proof supporting these matters, the bishop continues to turn a blind eye toward this and is shielding Fr Shantaraj. As the bishop has failed to act on the said matter and failed to protect the interests of the Catholic community, a complaint will be lodged with the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), and the higher authorities of the minority welfare department, Bengaluru and the deputy commissioner, Hassan district with the hope of conducting a fair enquiry and delivering justice to the people," he said.

"This is a serious matter that requires impartial investigation of Fr A Shantaraj, the president of the association, the members of the association and the officer of the minority welfare. Further, the funds that were obtained by these people illegally should be collected and appropriate legal action should be taken," he urged.

Rakesh, Pradeep and Silvester Saldanha were present in the press meet.