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Mysuru bishop case: Complainant claims allegations were made under duress

Mysuru, Aug 22: The case involving charges of sexual misconduct levelled against bishop of Mysore K A William has taken a new twist with the complainant approaching the police and claiming that the allegations were made under duress.

The complainant has lodged a fresh complaint with the NR police in Mysuru accusing 16 persons including several priests of bringing pressure upon her to level false allegations against the bishop and warning her of dire consequences if she failed to do their bidding. A copy of the complaint is with daijiworld.
While giving the bishop a clean chit, the complainant, in her nine-page complaint, has explained in detail the conspiracy hatched by the accused to tarnish the image of bishop William besides throwing light on the power struggle in the diocese.

The complainant said she had become a pawn in the hands of the disgruntled aspirants for the top post, who had resorted to unscrupulous and deceitful means to unseat Fr William from the bishop’s post.

The principal reason for targeting bishop William was his selection to the post of bishop of Mysore by the Pope, bypassing many senior priests and aspirants. The vested interests in the diocese had ganged up to replace Fr William with someone from their faction, she said.

A complaint of kidnapping, outraging the modesty of woman and issuing a life threat had been lodged against bishop William by Robert Rosario on behalf of the woman at Lashkar Mohalla Police Station on November 20, 2019 and a FIR had been filed in the regard on November 28, 2019.

She said that while working at the Catholic Centre in Bannimantap from 2013 to 2018, she was pestered by Fr Gilbert Aranha to lodge a complaint against Fr William, who took over as the bishop of Mysore in February 2017. As per the first complaint, bishop William, Fr Vijay Kumar and Anita Gomes, who is an accountant at Bishop’s House, among others, were behind the troubles caused to her. But in her latest complaint to the NR police, she said the charges were ’false’.

The complainant said she had given the same statement before the 2nd JMFC court on December 9, 2019 after which she was stalked by unidentified persons in vehicles and felt threatened. She said the threat to her and her family’s life was still there.

She said the group of 16 persons, who had forced her to level false allegations against the bishop last year, had robbed her of her peace of mind. She has complained against them under various sections of the IPC including 406, 506, 354D r/w 34, besides the Information Technology Act.

The persons named by the complainant include Fr Gilbert Aranha, Fr Becket D’Souza, Dr. Jerry Paes, Robert Rosario, Dolphy D Cunha, Richard D’Souza, Fr Jnanaprakash, Fr J Anthonappa, Fr Rohan, Fr Viet Martin, Melwyn Fernandes, Jerry Sequiera, Dr J S William Menezes, Violet Menezes, Geri D’Souza and Joseph Studor.

Reacting to the developments, bishop William said he was pained by the false charges levelled against him. Claiming that he was mentally harassed by these charges, the bishop said truth has to come out one day or other. Repeating a lie several times on various platforms will never make it true, he said.