Church of South India bishop detained at a Kerala airport after ED raids

Thiruvananthapuram: CSI South Kerala Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam was detained at Thiruvananthapuram international airport on Tuesday, a day after multiple raids were carried out at multiple premises of the Church of South India (CSI) in Thiruvananthapuram by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged money laundering case.

At the request of the ED, the bishop was stopped by immigration officials when he was trying to travel to the UK to take part in a church event. As a part of the investigation, Bishop Rasalam was asked to appear before ED officials, the Indian Express reported.

The ED is investigating a case involving the church-run Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College, Karakonam and the allegation that it had accepted a capitation fee for MBBS admission, a deal that involved black money. The raids were conducted in connection with this case and included the residences of Bishop Rasalam, medical college director Dr Bennet Abraham, who had contested in Lok Sabha elections in 2014, and CSI church secretary Praveen.

The CSI Church had earlier faced allegations that the fees collected from students as capitation fees were put into a separate account and were not given any bills or receipts.

In 2018, admission to the college was steeped in controversy after it was found that 11 students had produced fake community certificates.

The state Crime Branch launched an investigation Last year when it was alleged that admission was denied by the college to the students who had paid the capitation fees.

The court had earlier this year rejected the probe report of the Crime Branch that stated that evidence for the alleged crime could not be found.

Fr Jayaraj, the Church spokesman spoke to the media and said that the bishop was exonerated by the church and that the ED raid did not find anything incriminating against him.