The state’s High Court ordered the release of Bishop Almeida of Jabalpur after he was arrested as part of a campaign by the local Child Rights Protection Commission against Catholic entities. Meanwhile, accusations have been made after an inspection at a school science lab in the Diocese of Sagar found human remains.
Jabalpur (AsiaNews) – The Madhya Pradesh High Court granted bail to Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur, who had been arrested in connection with an alleged scam involving a Church-run hostel in a tribal area. He will remain at liberty at least until his case is heard on 24 April.
Nam Singh Yadav, the principal of a Catholic school in the village of Junwani (Jabalpur), was also released. He had been arrested on 7 March after he was accused of sexual abuses following an inspection by the Madhya Pradesh Child Rights Protection Commission (MPCPCR).
His release came about after girls involved in the case and their parents denied the charges against him and demanded a proper investigation into how such allegations could be made by the people who inspected their school.
According to the Diocese of Jabalpur, the scam charges against the bishop were laid after the case against the school principal in Junwani proved groundless.
Still, this has not stopped the MPCPCR from fabricating more cases. The latest involves a human foetus found at the Nirmal Jyoti School in Bina, a village in the Diocese of Sagar, which the child protection agency inspected from top to bottom.
The human foetus was stored in a jar in the science lab of missionary school, and everything suggests that it had been there for a long time. When asked for an explanation, the school asked for time to determine the facts.
However, local media picked up the story and began running with it at Easter, speculating about forced conversions and other abuses. On Monday, as expected, protests began at the school with demonstrators calling for the establishment to be closed.
Today Bishop James Athikalam of Sagar released a report on the case, explaining that the foetus in question comes from the diocesan hospital and was used years before in science class. It also detailed the way the child protection agency carried out its inspection, saying that it clearly sought to smear the school.