Kerala: Church of South India Bishop Appears Before ED Amid Corruption Charges

This comes after Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam was detained at the Thiruvananthapuram Airport on Tuesday.

Church of South India Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam.

(Photo: IANS)

Church of South India (CSI) Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday, 27 July, in Kerala's Kochi in connection with corruption allegations against the church-run Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College, Karakonam.

Rasalam had received a notice from the central agency on Tuesday after he was detained at the Thiruvananthapuram airport and disallowed to fly to his destination, the United Kingdom, for a conference.

On Tuesday, an official from the church alleged that Rasalam was stopped at the airport without any prior notice.

"Even though the ED had conducted an inspection yesterday, they did not warn that the Bishop must not leave the country to attend the conference,” the official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Raids in Premises Linked to the CSI

The ED had launched the raids amid allegations that the church-run Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College, Karakonam, received a capitation fee for MBBS admission and that the case involved black money.

Several premises, including residences of Bishop Rasalam, college director Bennet Abraham, and church secretary Praveen, were searched in the case, as per The Indian Express.

The CSI church faced charges of keeping capitation fee collected from students in a separate account without maintaining receipts or bills.

The college was at the centre of a controversy in 2018 after 11 students were found to have produced fake community certificates.

In 2021, the Kerala Police initiated an investigation into the charge that the college did not provide admission to students from whom they had collected capitation fees.

Even though the Crime Branch informed the court that no evidence of the alleged crime was found, the court rejected their report in the matter earlier this year.

However, church spokesperson Father Jayaraj said, while speaking to the press, that the court had cleared the bishop of charges since nothing incriminating was found against him in the ED raids.

(With inputs from PTI and The Indian Express.)