Media Release
Chikkamagaluru, Aug 30: The principal senior civil and chief judicial magistrate of the civil court, in its order, rejected ‘B’ report submitted by the city police, in connection with the criminal case filed against Bishop T Anthony Swamy and Fr A Shantharaj, accused in the undisclosed under hand dealings and secret sale dealings of Chikkamagaluru St Joseph’s Educational Society’s property and further ordered to register criminal case punishable under U/S406 r/w section 34 of IPC, a criminal breach of trust, to issue summons and to produce the accused before the court.
Bishop T Anthony Swamy (left) and Fr A Shantharaj
Based upon the complaint filed on August 19, 2019 by educational society’s governing body member Michael Sadananda Baptist with documentary evidence, pertaining to the educational society’s property scam, a criminal case, as per the court direction, was registered in the city police station vide PCR No.34/2019, under IPC u/s 406, r/w section 34.
During the year 1984, one philanthropist F G H Fernandes, after getting the property alienated by the deputy commissioner (DC) for hostel purposes, had donated 20 guntas of his property falling under city municipal limits on NH173to the St. Joseph’s Educational Society for constructing the Hostel for educating poor children. Apart from this property, one more property of 21 guntas of vacant land was also reserved for hostel purposes within the compound of St Joseph’s Boys High School, just on the opposite side of the road in the same area, having separate Khata number since 1976.
The court proceedings reveal that these two properties are located in the same area but separated by a road and the society president Bishop T Anthony Swamy and Fr A Shantharaj have created fabricated documents, by matching the Khatha of the year 1976 of 21 guntas property of St Josephs boys School to that of 20 guntas donated by FGH Fernandes for poor students hostel purposes and thus had given false information to the officials to obtain a new E Khatha for this donated property to have it secretly transferred in the name a totally newly invented unauthorized Society called “President, C/o. Santha Josephara Shalegala Education Society”. Thus the above accused had hatched a criminal conspiracy of cheating the Education Society, by showing the documents of its earlier property under somewhat similar name, to that of the donated one for poor students hostel purposes and had managed to fool the Authorities to get their approval for dividing this property into six residential sites, in serious violation of the conditions of the conversion order issued by the DC. It is apparently evident from the above submissions in the court, that the accused intended to use ‘Same Khata’ for the two properties and sell both the properties, one after the other, using the same khatha, since the sale deal with the buyer was for a property with a particular Khatha number, which happened to be the same for both the properties mentioned above.
As per the minutes of the meetings of the St Josephs Education Society’s governing body as submitted in the court, the property donated by the philanthropist ‘FGH Fernandes’ is next to the National Highway 173, Jyothinagara, and the value of the property, even as per government guideline value was Rs 4.25 crore at the rate of Rs 1,950 per sq ft and the prevailing market value was Rs 8.7 crore at the rate of Rs 4,000 per sq ft, whereas, what the Bishop Anthony Swamy announced in the governing body meeting is that he had entered into a ‘sale deal agreement’ for a mere sale consideration amount of Rs 2.10 crore at the rate of Rs 950 per sq ft only and he has collected Rs 40 lac as advance amount. This revelation from the bishop has come only after the repeated queries raised by the members during the meeting with regard to some amount credited into the society’s bank a/c and the minutes containing these facts also have been signed by the bishop.
It is evident that the governing body members are accusing the Bishop and Fr Shantharaj for having carried out an underhand dealing to pocket an undisclosed big amount, as it is certainly not possible to sell the forbidden property of the institution at such a throwaway price and thus had planned to cause a huge loss of Rs 6.6 crore to the society, besides cheating the government through tax evasion and stamp duty on this undisclosed sale consideration. According to these members, this is the loss of only one property and when the bishop and Fr Shantharaj have managed to fool the authorities to have same Khatha for two somewhat identical properties, then, it is evident that they have hatched a plan to sell the second property as well, using the same Khatha and in which case the education society would have lost both the properties worth at the prevailing market value of over Rs 15 crore. They have done all these transactions keeping the society in the dark, which the members of the governing body discovered by obtaining all the documents from the relevant authorities and thus exposed these misdeeds.
Michael, said during the press meet, that these above mentioned irregularities and misdeeds are recorded in details in the proceedings of the governing body meetings and the bishop himself being present, has signed these minutes of the meeting.
According to Michael Baptist, one Harry Fernandes, who is in no way connected to the St Joseph’s Educational Society, had earlier corresponded with the city municipal council and the urban development authority and collected all the documents related to this property scandal had lodged a complaint against the accused bishop and Fr A Shantharaj, with the Chikkamagaluru City Muncipality and Chikkamagaluru Development Authority, stating that it was illegal that they have converted property donated for hostel purposes into six residential sites having recorded under separate assessment numbers.
The very same Harry Fernandes has surprisingly taken a complete U-turn and now supporting the bishop’s actions on these property illegal deals and accusing the governing body members who have taken up the very same cause that Harry Fernandes had taken up earlier and now, he has even filed a complaint with the police, against these governing body members, claiming them to have falsely exposed the Bishop, in sharp contrast and serious contempt of the civil court which has ordered to file criminal case U/S 406 r/w sec. 34 of IPC against the Bishop Anthony Swamy and Fr Shantharaj.
During the media briefings, governing body member Michael stated that these irregularities were brought to the notice of his excellency Nuncio, who is at the helm of affairs in Delhi as the Rome Ambassador to India. When no action was initiated by him, with regrets, having left with no choice, he had to approach the court inevitably. He said that he being a true follower of Christ’s preaching, he highly respects the bishops and the priests and certainly not against them at all, he is only against their misdeeds, illegal sale of forbidden property of the Education Society causing heavy loss only for their personal gain, that too without any authority or governing body consent. He stated that he being an alumnus of the St Joseph’s Boys’ High School, he is proud of this institution and now being a member of the governing body, he has more responsibilities to safe guard its interest as well as the growth of this educational institution. He said, transgressing the barriers of caste, religion and language, thousands of students and their parents are supporting this fight against fraudulent change of Khatha and sale deals of Institution’s property gifted and meant for specific cause.
Francis Xavier, secretary, Akila Karnataka Catholic Kristara Kannada Sanga, stated that, the Christian community from decades, irrespective of their mother tongue, are living in peace and harmony and just because of land scam, Harry Fernandes and his team, at the behest of bishop, are trying to divert the main issue by raking up the language issues, which will be not tolerated and warned to take legal action.
In the press meet held August 27 at Chikkamagaluru Press Club, besides Michael Baptist and Francis Xavier, other community leaders Jermys Lobo, James Benedict, Victor Sequeira, Saldana and many parish council members from the district were present.