Church of South India faithful protest against graft
Members allege Rs 18 crore missing from the church fund
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-09-25 01:34 GMT
KOZHIKODE: Members of the Church of South India (CSI) Malabar Diocese took out a protest march in the city under the auspices of CSI Malabar Diocese Movement against the alleged corruption in the church and suppression of rights, on Thursday. The protesters carrying placards kept their mouths covered with black cloth.
The protesters alleged that gross financial irregularities were found in the auditing of the accounts and during the bifurcation of the North Kerala diocese into Malabar diocese and Kochi diocese these anomalies came to the fore as Rs 18 crore was found missing from the revenue of the church.
Jeevananda John, one of the organizers of the agitation, told DC that not only believers even priests boycotted the meeting called by the church.
“Today a meeting was called to audit the accounts and also to start procedures to appoint new secretaries for the diocese which were deliberately thwarted by the present secretaries”, he added.
The agitators also alleged that in the accounts presented before the administrative council, Rs 12 crores was found missing from the revenue and another amount of Rs 6 crore was reported as ‘trade expense’.
“We are totally clueless about what kind of trade the church conducted for such a huge amount”, he said.