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Day after ED raids, Bishop Rasalam reaches airport for UK visit; turned back
ED officials alleged that Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam and others had been summoned by the agency in the past but they hadn’t appeared for questioning. The Bishop could not be contacted for his reaction.
Thiruvananthapuram: Bishop A Dharmaraj Rasalam, 66, was turned back from the Thiruvananthapuram airport by immigration officials minutes before he was to leave on a visit to the United Kingdom and told to appear before Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials for questioning tomorrow in connection with a money laundering case being investigated by the agency, people familiar with the matter said.
The Bishop, whose residence was among the locations raided on Monday, tried to persuade officials to let him leave, pointing out that the visit was planned much before the raids were conducted. But the officials stood their ground.
ED officials alleged that the Bishop and others had been summoned by the agency in the past but they hadn’t appeared. Bishop Rasalam could not be contacted for his reaction.
Monday’s raids were carried out at the headquarters of the Church of South India (CSI) diocese in Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram and its many offices in connection with money laundering charges following complaints that church functionaries allegedly took money from students for seats at Somervell Memorial Medical College in Karakonam.
A church spokesperson brushed aside the allegations against its functionaries on Monday, insisting that some “frivolous cases” had been filed against the Bishop and others. “We are co-operating well with all agencies. We will come out clean,” spokesperson C R Godwin said.
ED officials conducted simultaneous raids at the offices of Bishop A Dhamaraj Rasalam, residence of church secretary T T Praveen, former director of the medical college Dr Bennet Abraham and offices of the medical college.
Two years ago, the Kerala High Court cancelled the admission of 11 medical students enrolled on the basis of fake community certificates issued by the Bishop. In 2019, Kerala’s state admission fee regulatory committee also found that the college accepted exorbitant fees from some NRI students. Later, some students from Tamil Nadu also filed a cheating complaint, alleging that they had to pay a huge amount to the college management for MBBS seats.
