Father Alphonse Aind was jailed in May 2019 after being found guilty of abetting gang rape in Jharkhand state
School students and villagers attend a village meeting on June 22, 2018, following the abduction at gunpoint and gang rape of five anti-trafficking women activists at a village in Jharkhand state. (Photo: AFP)
The top court in India’s Jharkhand state has granted bail to a Jesuit priest convicted in connection with a gang rape case after nearly three years in detention.
“We have got the court order for the release of Father Alphonse Aind from the state high court” and he is expected to be released on March 10, Father Bisu Benjamin Aind, a priest dealing with the case, told UCA News. The two priests are not related.
Father Alphonse Aind was jailed on May 17, 2019, after Khunti District Court found him guilty of abetting rape and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The Jesuit priest’s appeal is pending in the high court, the state’s top court.
In December 2019, Khunti District Court acquitted Father Aind and five others of charges of not reporting the crime to police.
The high court’s order was produced before the district court for its approval on March 9. The district court will then hand over the order to prison authorities, said Father Bisu Aind, vicar of St. Michael Church in Khunti Diocese.
Police arrested the priest on June 22, 2018, when he was the principal of Jesuit-run Stockmann Memorial Middle School in remote Kochang village in Khunti Diocese
Father Alphonse Aind is detained in a prison in state capital Ranchi, some 50 kilometers from Khunti.
The top court, however, has not suspended the lower court’s conviction. The hearing of his appeal continues in the high court.
If the high court upholds the trial court order, the priest will be arrested and sent back to jail. He will then have the option to seek bail from the Supreme Court of India and file his last appeal against conviction.
Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, auxiliary bishop of Ranchi Archdiocese in the state capital, thanked the legal team and others who have supported the priest in the legal battle and those who prayed for him.
Police arrested the priest on June 22, 2018, when he was the principal of Jesuit-run Stockmann Memorial Middle School in remote Kochang village in Khunti District.
The high court had granted him bail on Feb. 7, 2019, over charges that he was part of a conspiracy in the gang rape, but he had to remain in jail as another case was filed against him by one Sanjay Sharma.
Sharma accused the priest of deliberate omission in reporting the case to police, administering a drug or poison to women with intent to commit an offense, criminal intimidation and fraudulent removal of property to prevent its seizure, delaying the release of the priest from the jail on bail.
The prosecution also opposed his release on grounds that his release would have an adverse impact on the ongoing probe.
His arrest came after six men abducted and raped five young women who were staging a street play in the priest’s school on June 19, 2018.
Police arrested the attackers based on the complaint of a victim and the prosecution said the priest had full knowledge of the crime but failed to report it to police in time
The women’s play aimed to create awareness among local indigenous people. Police say the play angered the attackers because it expressed sentiments against the Pathalgadi movement, which asserted tribal autonomy over village land.
The police say two Ursuline nuns were part of the women’s groups but the attackers left the nuns at the behest of the priest, which allowed the local women to be taken for sexual assault.
Police arrested the attackers based on the complaint of a victim and the prosecution said the priest had full knowledge of the crime but failed to report it to police in time.
The Pathalgadi movement has been projected as rebelling against some state polices which tribal leaders say aim to take away their land and resources in the name of development projects.
The Jharkhand government has termed the movement unlawful and the leaders of the powerful pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party have accused Catholic groups of supporting such movements.
More than one million of the 32 million population of Jharkhand state are Christian, almost all of them tribal people. In Khunti district, 25 percent of the 532,000 people are estimated to be Christians.