The 67-year-old Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, who had earlier given a statement to the cops against bishop Franco regarding the rape case of a nun was found dead on Monday morning in St.Mary’s Church, Dasuya in Jalandhar. The exact reason for the death is not known yet.
The family of father Kuriakose Kattuthara in Cherthala alleged that there is some mystery behind his death and they demanded a probe into his death. “We never believe he committed suicide. He showed courage to act against the wrong activities of bishop Franco Mulakkal and my brother faced threats from various parts following it. He shared it whenever we talked over the phone.
Many nuns approached my brother when they faced problems from bishop Franco and my brother also questioned Franco about it. So it is sure that he had many rivals. So we strongly believe that there is mystery behind his death.” said Johny Thomas Kattuthara who is the brother of Kuriakose Kattuthara.
“We are going to lodge a complaint with Alappuzha district police chief in this connection. Today morning around 10.30am we received information about his death,” said Johny. As per the informed sources, a cook was the first person who came to know about the father’s death when he went to the room after the priest wasn’t present there to do his routine work. However, the room was locked from inside and there was no proper response. Seeing this, he quickly alerted nuns in the school who subsequently informed Father Libon, who is a priest of a church next to Mukerian town.
“The cook had gone to his room after finding that he had not turned up for breakfast. He had also not shown up for the dinner the previous night. The cook and the nuns found that there was no response from inside. They informed me and I immediately rushed to the place from Mukerian. We broke open the door around 10.30am and found that Father Kuriakose was lying motionless. I immediately rushed him to Civil Hospital in Dasuya where he was declared brought dead by a doctor.” Libon told TOI.
Police under the supervision of Hoshiarpur SSP J Elanchzian searched the room of the deceased priest. It is learnt that the deceased had met the SIT of Kerala police when they visited Jalandhar in the second week of August in connection with the Kerala nun’s rape case. He had corroborated nun’s allegations. The Church where he was working is under Diocese of Jalandhar.
Originally published by The Times Of India
