Bishop Thomas Thennatt of Gwalior died in a car crash in 2018 but his family suspects foul play
A file image of Bishop Thomas Thennatt of Gwalior who died in a road accident on Dec.14, 2018. (Photo supplied)
The top court of a central Indian state has allowed the sister of a Catholic bishop who died in a road accident to seek a fresh inquiry to find whether foul play was involved in his death, as is suspected.
Claramma Constatine was told by the Madhya Pradesh High Court to approach the trial court after she alleged there was foul play in the death of her brother, Bishop Thomas Thennatt, 65, of Gwalior Diocese in a car crash on Dec. 14, 2018.
The bishop’s family said they were happy with the high court’s July 8 order and will soon be approaching the trial court.
“We are sure a fair probe will bring out the truth. We will get justice,” Pastor Lovers Masih, son-in-law of Constatine, told UCA News on July 13.
Constatine claimed that at the time of the accident there were three others including the driver in the car with Bishop Thennatt, but none of them even suffered a minor scratch and their statements about the incident were contradictory.
“My brother’s body was buried in a hurry, without a mandatory post-mortem, and the diocese denied us permission to take his body to our home state Kerala. The diocesan officials even tried to intimidate the family,” she said.
“One thing is sure, the bishop died in a road accident and it is the reality”
Father N John Xavier, former vicar-general of the diocese and one of the respondents to the petition said: “We welcome any kind of investigation from any probe agency. One thing is sure, the bishop died in a road accident and it is the reality.”
Constatine’s petition named at least eight Catholic priests as respondents while challenging the police report that said it was a case of accidental death by alleging it could have been a case of murder.
She suspected the involvement of priests in the diocese and sought direction from the high court to the state police to conduct a fair probe into the death of her brother.
The court, however, directed her to approach the trial court where the charge sheet in the case was already filed.
“Under these circumstances, this court is of the considered opinion that the petitioner has an efficacious remedy of approaching the trial court for a direction for further investigation,” the order stated.
The bishop’s death has been mired in suspicion and his body was exhumed six months after his death in June 2019 after a local Catholic woman obtained an order from a local court saying she suspected he was killed.
It was alleged even then that the police had not conducted a thorough investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of Bishop Thennatt.