A Division Bench comprising Justice Johnson John and Justice P B Suresh Kumar of the Kerala High Court reduced the sentence imposed on Father Edwin Figarez from rigorous imprisonment for the remainder of his life to 20 years. The court set aside the conviction of his brother Silvester Figarez, the second accused and acquitted him. Figarez sexually assaulted and raped a minor parishioner girl who was enrolled in eighth standard in 2014 and 2015.

Back in late 2016, HinduPost reported that Fr. Figarez was the second priest in Kerala to have been sentenced under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. (Sanil K James, a pastor attached to the Salvation Army, a Christian denominational church, was sentenced to 40-year rigorous imprisonment for a similar act of rape.

Earlier, the Additional Sessions Court, Ernakulam (Special Court for the trial of cases relating to Atrocities and Sexual Violence against Women and Children) found that Father Edwin Figarez, a Roman Catholic vicar, had committed sexual assault and rape against a minor girl. He was sentenced to double life imprisonment and imposed a fine of 2,25,000 rupees under the POCSO Act.

The Ernakulam POCSO Court had passed the earlier sentence, and Figarez has been in jail since then. But he approached the High Court seeking leniency in the sentence and gained a favourable verdict. There is a provision in the division bench’s order that the punishment should not be commuted without completing the term.

His brother, Silvester Figarez, was sentenced to one year imprisonment and fined 5,000 rupees for helping him go into hiding.

According to the prosecution, Figarez had raped the minor girl who was studying in eight standard many times while serving as the priest in a local church. Figarez was the parish priest of Lourd Matha Church, Puthenvelikkara, in Ernakulam district. He had subjected the girl to sexual abuse several times since January. The last incident was on 28th March.

Figarez raped her mainly when she came for confession. In her complaint, the girl’s mother alleged that the priest abused her daughter many times when she sought his services for confession.

The priest was a preacher and composer of Christian devotional songs. Exploiting the girl’s interest in music, Figarez often took her to his residence under the pretext of music class and sexually abused her.

Ultimately, the victim disclosed the sexual assault to her mother. An FIR was registered at the Puthenvelikara Police Station for sections related to punishment for sexual assault and sections of the POCSO Act for the crime and sexual harassment.

The police registered the case on 1st April 2015, and the Christian pastor went into hiding. The priest fled to Dubai to avoid arrest and appealed for an anticipatory bail at the High Court of Kerala, initially granted until 5th May. The police interrogated him when Figarez returned to Kerala on 2nd May.

The paedophile priest surrendered before the Police Deputy SP P P Shams police at Aluva. Authorities confiscated his passport also.

TM Varghese, the then Ernakulam Deputy Superintendent of Police (Central Range), was the investigating officer in the case. Varghese pursued Figarez even after the accused left the country with the help of his brother and members of the church committee. “We issued a lookout notice and kept track of the movements of Figarez’s family, who had taken him to the UAE,” Varghese said.

The Kotturpuram Diocese, which Father Firagez was part of, was accused of supporting him and helping him escape. An official of the Kottappuram Diocese told Firstpost that Figarez had been temporarily suspended based on a report prepared by a commission appointed by Bishop Joseph Karikkassery in May 2015, which was ‘pending’ the Vatican’s approval. The Bishop was unavailable for comment.

Later, the Kottapuram diocese suspended him and relieved him of all duties.

Besides, a government doctor named Ajitha, who had worked in a state-run primary health centre, was also found guilty on charges of her failure to report the sexual abuse after she examined the 14-year-old ninth grader. Ajitha’s story was comfortably brushed under the carpet, and we never heard of her.

The Catholic society in Kerala was plagued by the case of a nun’s allegations against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Jalandhar Diocese of raping her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. However, Kerala Police took nearly two months to interrogate the accused after the complaint was filed.

This is what Father Augustine Vattoli, a Catholic priest and convener of the Save Our Nuns Action Council, which organised the unprecedented protests at Ernakulam seeking the arrest of a rape-accused clergyman, had to say back then. “It took 90 days for this Left Democratic Front government in Kerala to finally move against Mulakkal. They were afraid of the repercussions. If the sisters hadn’t come out in protest, this case would have disappeared like every other case.”

Comparing the two cases, Father Vattoli said the clout Mulakkal enjoys played a significant role in how things panned out. “In Edwin’s case, he belonged to the Latin right. There was also an attempt to protect him, but the law finally took its course, and the church backed off.”

“But Mulakkal’s case is different. He also belongs to the Latin right but is a Syrian Christian. He is powerful within and outside the church, with strong political connections. He also has connections in the Roman hierarchy. If those involved are aligned with the powerful within the hierarchy, the church will be even more protective.”

By June 2021, Lucy Kalappura, one of the nuns who protested in support of the nun raped by Bishop Franco Mullakkal, was dismissed by the Catholic church and asked to leave the convent. The church not only chose to support the rapist Bishop but relentlessly crushed the voice of anyone who stood in support of the victim, effectively scaring its sexual abuse victims from coming out. 

In January 2021, an additional sessions court in Kottayam acquitted Franco Mulakkal, the influential Bishop of the Catholic Church’s Jalandhar diocese, who was charged with repeated rape by a nun in a Kerala convent. “Daivathinu sthuthi (Praise the Lord!)” Mulakkal told reporters before leaving the court premises. He received a hero’s welcome upon his return to Jalandhar.

Do Christian rapist priests and paedophile pastors in Kerala enjoy a different system of justice?