{"id":62050,"date":"2018-07-19T10:44:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T10:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/?p=62050"},"modified":"2018-07-20T05:14:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T05:14:23","slug":"kerala-church-sex-scandal-supreme-court-reserves-verdict-after-in-camera-proceedings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/?p=62050","title":{"rendered":"Kerala Church Sex Scandal: Supreme Court reserves verdict after in-camera proceedings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/AQAZbo_5Z3Q<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"SC Reserves Order On Priests&#039; Anticipatory Bail Plea| Mathrubhumi News\" width=\"735\" height=\"413\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LFkFo46i9DY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"\u0d2f\u0d41\u0d35\u0d24\u0d3f\u0d2f\u0d46 \u0d2a\u0d40\u0d21\u0d3f\u0d2a\u0d4d\u0d2a\u0d3f\u0d1a\u0d4d\u0d1a \u0d15\u0d47\u0d38\u0d3f\u0d32\u0d46 \u0d12\u0d28\u0d4d\u0d28\u0d3e\u0d02 \u0d2a\u0d4d\u0d30\u0d24\u0d3f\u0d2f\u0d3e\u0d2f \u0d35\u0d48\u0d26\u0d3f\u0d15\u0d28\u0d4d\u200d \u0d2e\u0d41\u0d28\u0d4d\u200d\u0d15\u0d42\u0d30\u0d4d\u200d \u0d1c\u0d3e\u0d2e\u0d4d\u0d2f\u0d02 \u0d24\u0d47\u0d1f\u0d3f I Orthodox sabha issues\" width=\"735\" height=\"413\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bzj1K1djo-I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The case filed in the Supreme Court by two Christian priests seeking anticipatory bail in what has come to be known as the Kerala Church sex scandal will be heard\u00a0<em>in camera<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The matter was mentioned this morning by counsel for the appellant-accused, who requested that the proceedings be held<em>\u00a0in camera,<\/em>considering the nature of the case. The request was allowed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The matter will be heard at 12.30 pm by a Bench of Justices\u00a0<strong>AK Sikri<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Ashok Bhushan<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The case is an appeal against a Kerala High Court order which had denied anticipatory bail to the accused.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Senior Advocates\u00a0<strong>R Basant<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Bechu Kurian,<\/strong>\u00a0and Advocate\u00a0<strong>A Karthik<\/strong>\u00a0appeared for the appellant-accused.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The accused priests, belonging to the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, have been\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/barandbench.com\/kerala-church-scandal-relief-arrest-july-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">accused of offences punishable<\/a>\u00a0under Sections 376, 354, 354A, 506(i) of the Indian Penal Code.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The husband of the victim had approached the Bishop of the Marthomma Church and submitted a complaint wherein allegations of gross sexual impropriety were alleged against a number of priests of the Church.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">After the matter was leaked to the media, a political leader brought it to the attention of the State Police Chief. Following a preliminary inquiry, a report submitted to the State Police Chief found that a cognizable offence was made out, warranting the registration of a crime.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">In terms of the directions issued by the Supreme Court, the victim was produced before the Magistrate and her statement was recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC. In the said statement, the victim submitted that she had been blackmailed into having sexual relations with the accused priests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">To the contrary, the accused has contended that it is only the husband\u2019s version that the survivor was raped. Further, it has been contended that assuming without accepting that the allegations are true, no case of rape is made out since the sexual relationship was consensual.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Update:<\/strong>\u00a0The Court reserved its verdict after the in-camera hearing. Senior Advocates R Basant and Thomas P Joseph and advocates A Karthik and Resmitha\u00a0R Chandran appeared for the appellant-accused. Senior Counsel V Giri represented the State of Kerala.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The Court told that the verdict will be pronounced soon. The interim protection from arrest which was granted to the accused will continue till the pronouncement of the\u00a0verdict.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/barandbench.com\/kerala-church-sex-scandal-proceedings-in-supreme-court-to-be-held-in-camera\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/AQAZbo_5Z3Q The case filed in the Supreme Court by two Christian priests seeking anticipatory bail in what has come to be known as the Kerala Church sex scandal will be &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-cases","category-priests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62050"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62069,"href":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62050\/revisions\/62069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}