Indian police arrest suspects in armed heist at parish
Police in central India's Chhattisgarh state have arrested two suspects in a case of robbing at gunpoint a priest of Raipur archdiocese two weeks ago. The state police arrested Vakil Ahmed, 28, and Mohdamud Abid, 27. Police said they also recovered 50,000 rupees (US$610), a country-made pistol, and a motorcycle used in the robbery from the arrested. Father Varghese Thekkekut, who was robbed, thanked his bishop and the state administration for taking "serious note of the crime and acting promptly."
The priest of St. Theresa of Avila parish in the town of Bagbahra village was robbed of 120,000 rupees (some US$1,465) by three armed men on June 18. The suspected criminals were arrested from their hideouts at Meerut and Baghpat towns in northern Uttar Pradesh state, their home state, Superintendent of Police Dharmendra Singh told media. Another suspect who the police referred to only as Wajif, is absconding. Thekkekut told UCA News that according to the police, the arrested people had confessed to the crime and revealed that Wajif was the mastermind behind the armed robbery.
“They gathered false information that the church had received a huge donation and so they planned the heist over a period of five months or so,” the priest said. He hoped the main culprit will be arrested soon. “It is also a lesson for all of us. We should all be alert when it comes to financial transactions, and meeting with strangers, as our bishop has directed,” Thekkekut said. He was referring to an appeal of Archbishop Victor Henry Thakur of Raipur in his June 19 letter.
It urged priests, nuns and lay people to “be vigilant, particularly in the present situation of hate campaigns.” Thakur said the Bagbahra incident was not an isolated one and he was deeply concerned for the safety of priests and religious working in the archdiocese, especially in remote locations. The 69-year-old priest in Bagbahra was cornered by the criminals after they managed to barge inside his room. They held him at gunpoint and stole the cash kept inside a cupboard.
The men tied the priest’s hands and feet and locked him inside a room before escaping. The robbers also took his cell phone and left it outside the presbytery, apparently to stop him from calling for help. The parish was erected on Oct. 15, 1980, and Father Joseph Pullankav was the first resident priest. The sisters of the Congregation of Teresian Carmelites (CTC) are rendering their service in the parish and also run an English medium school.
