A priest who worked at a prominent English medium school in Pune and was booked on September 30 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) for alleged sexual abuse of a minor boy, was granted bail by a Pune court on Friday.
The Hadapsar Police booked Father Vincent Pereira for allegedly sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at the latter’s home on December 4 last year. The First Information Report (FIR) was registered on the basis of a formal complaint lodged by social activist Maruti Bhapkar, and was transferred to the Kondhwa Police.
The FIR stated that Father Pereira sexually abused the boy while two other prominent members of the church — Thomas Dabre, the bishop of Pune diocese, and Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Bombay — allegedly did not act against the main suspect despite complaints from the survivor’s family members.
“After he left, the boy, who was terribly afraid, narrated the ordeal to his parents. They approached Bishop Thomas Dabre at Wanowrie seeking action against the priest. When no action was taken, the survivor’s family wrote to Cardinal Oswald Gracias in Mumbai seeking action but he too did not take action which emboldened the Father Pareira further,” the FIR stated.
Cardinal Oswald Gracias and Bishop Dabre refuted the allegations.
HT has seen a copy of the FIR and the bail order.
Additional sessions judge SP Ponkshe in her order allowing anticipatory bail to Father Pereira asked him to cooperate with investigators.
Advocate Milind Pawar representing Father Pereira said, “The accused is not on the rolls of the school anymore, he is a private person and has been granted interim protection by the court. The victim had approached three police stations before the FIR was filed but nobody took cognisance of it because the incident never took place. A fake FIR was lodged without verifying facts and the applicant has been attending Wanowrie Police Station for the past one-and-a-half years. When the applicant has an FIR already lodged against him then why will he commit a second crime?”
In 2018, Pereira was booked by the Wanowrie Police for showing a pornographic video to a student, following which he was arrested.
The Hadapsar police registered the new case after Bhapkar and a second activist, Dominic Lobo, approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) stating that their complaint was ignored by three police stations. In a September 26 order, the NHRC asked Pune police to take action in the case.
“We are working on whatever legal remedies are available since it is not a case against Dabre. There is no case at all on the basis of the FIR. I cannot disclose my defense at this premature stage,” Bishop Dabre’s counsel advocate Sandeep Bali said adding, Dabre’s name has been “entered in the FIR by mischief or may be as part of suppression of facts.”
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, when contacted, said he was travelling abroad. He clarified, “Father Vincent Pereira is not a Mumbai priest, he is from Pune. I have no jurisdiction in Pune. It has a separate diocese and a separate bishop. I am also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in India but I cannot interfere in any diocese. Neither the survivor’s parents nor anyone else has approached me with their complaints.”
Kondhwa Police Station Incharge Sardar Patil said, “Police have lodged a case under the POCSO Act. The main suspect has obtained interim bail and the other two suspects don’t have any direct role in the case. They merely had not reported the crime to the police and the investigation is on.”
Despite repeated attempts, Pune Commissioner of Police Amitabh Gupta did not respond to calls and a text messages.
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