A Christian priest from Marthoma Syrian Church who allegedly sexually assaulted and blackmailed a young woman was arrested in Kerala. Ernakulam Central Police arrested Pastor Panavila Puthanveed Saji Thomas (43), a native of Adichanalloor in Kollam district. This is not the first time Thomas has been involved in threatening and raping his laywomen.
Earlier, a local online channel had reported about Thomas’s illicit relationships, and the pastor’s response was pretty abusive. Thomas is heard threatening the reporter and the channel of dire consequences. The Marthoma padre added that he does not need the priesthood to care for himself. The channel alleged that whichever church Thomas went to, sexual controversies followed him.
Thomas groomed the victim, who was estranged from her husband. The priest convinced her he could solve family issues and promised to lead her to ‘spiritual advancement.’ They started chatting about holiness through WhatsApp at night, eventually leading to sexual exploitation. It was also a period when the perverted padre was living in a church near Kochi.
As intimacy grew, Thomas engaged in sexual relations with the woman at many places, including the accused’s house. Thomas sexually assaulted her and secretly filmed the act without her knowledge on his mobile phone. Later, the accused pastor threatened the young woman by showing her nude pictures and took her to several hotels to continue the torture.
When the woman refused to partake in the illicit relationship, Thomas blackmailed her and threatened to publish her nude images. Allegedly, the depraved priest even shared personal pictures of the victim to a WhatsApp group of the company where the lady works. This forced the Christian woman to come to the lodge, begging Thomas not to release the footage.
The rapes continued until the lady could not take it any longer. This was when the victim, a native of Kochi, complained to the police. The rapist had asked her to come to the hotel once more.
Thomas was caught while trying to escape after learning that the woman had complained. A team led by Ernakulam Central Police Inspector S Vijayashankar detained the accused pastor from the North Railway Station premises. He was arrested last Sunday and remanded to the Kakkanad district jail.
Due to his immoral character, the church banned the perverted priest in 2021. Christian churches have an odd habit of protecting such rapist priests, and they continue living in church seminaries. The church shamelessly covers up mistakes committed by priests using every trick in the book.
During his ‘suspension,’ Thomas groomed the Marthoma church member and tortured her. Mysteriously, he was reinstated lately, and the church was about to put Thomas in charge of a church somewhere when this incident and his arrest happened. What happened to the earlier complaints remains anonymous, but no legal action was initiated.
Marthoma Church
The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, often called Marthoma Church, is an autonomous Christian cult based in Kerala. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Marthoma Christians lived in a few districts of Central Kerala but soon spread worldwide and now claim to have 10 lakh followers. Around half of those believers live in Kerala.
The Marthoma Evangelistic Association, the missionary wing of the Marthoma Church, organizes the Maramon Convention each year on the Pamba river bed near Kozhencherry in the Pathanamthitta district. They set up massive tents, and it is a gathering where mass conversions happen. This year, the controversial convention event occurred between 13 to 20 February.
Thomas sexually assaulted the victim while both were participating in the convention. Incidentally, Thiruvananthapuram Congress MP Shashi Tharoor graced this year’s event. Though he is rarely seen in his constituency, the Congress MP makes it a point to attend every Christian missionary event.
Tharoor ranted about investment, unemployment, and the migration of students from Kerala to foreign countries. Tharoor’s speech failed to offer any solutions.
The Sunanda Pushkar case accused is believed to be wooing the Christians and might contest the next parliamentary elections from the safe seat of Kottayam or Pathanamthitta. BJP’s Thiruvananthapuram vote share rose from 11% in 2009 to 32% in the last couple of Lok Sabha elections. The only reason BJP cannot break the deadlock is that communists use a weak candidate.
Being a Mar Thomite Priest or a Hindu Swami or Imam doesn’t make you a holy person, if you are tied to the pleasures of the world. That also doesn’t mean that people who choose to worship the ideals represented by the person corrupting them are part of a cult. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/temple-priest-surrenders-in-sexual-abuse-case/article65759335.ece/amp/ – just an example that this is bad people ruining good ideals that teach us how to exit the cyclical misery of this world. Hindus, Muslims, Christian’s, Buddhists are all trying to help human beings rise above our animal nature and embrace the godliness we have within. Maybe some more objective reporting is desired. Think about the people affected instead of a less political agenda.
Go and express this need for ‘balanced reporting’ in all the Christian propaganda sites who day in & day out attack Hindu Dharma and all indigenous religions, fabricating atrocities and demonizing Dharma.