Nagercoil (Tamil Nadu): A special team of police on Tuesday arrested a priest, who had been on the run in connection with a sexual assault case. The accused has been identified as Fr Benedict Anto, a Catholic priest who was serving as a priest in the church for many years. Earlier, several obscene photos and videos of the priest had emerged on social media after his phone and laptops were allegedly stolen.

As per reports, a nursing student from Kanyakumari had lodged a complaint against Anto with the district superintendent of police. According to the complainant, the priest sexually abused her whenever she went to church.

According to sources, the videos were put on social media by a group of people who ‘attacked’ him a few days earlier and took away his laptop. The content of the videos and pictures was extremely scandalous and caused wide outrage. The videos and pictures show Benedict Anto in compromising positions with multiple women.

Anto has been accused of predatory sexual behavior. He would send obscene messages to women and also kiss and touch women inappropriately, as per reports. He would record himself with women doing intimate acts and use the videos to threaten the victims to keep quiet. Tamil media has reported that the priest’s targets include minor girls too.

A woman named Mini Ajitha complained to the police stating that Priest Anto had filed a false case against her son Austin Gino because he had confronted him for harassing his female friend, who is a medical student. The accused had also rang up the girl’s mother and forced her to ask her daughter to make a video call to him. Following this, the complainant called the priest who later harassed her online. She decided to lodge a complaint after learning that he was abusing other girls too.

According to a report published in Organiser, Benedict Anto is a Syro Malankara Catholic church priest in Kanyakumari West District. The 30 -year-old Christian priest is from Marthandam near Nagercoil in the Kanyakumari district. 

In the past few days, scandalous videos of Priest Benedict Anto indulging in obscenity with women have gone viral on social media, alleging that he was involved with minors and married women. The alleged priest is associated with various political groups, including Naam Tamilar Katchi Seeman. Most of his victims are young women below 30 years, including students, minors, and housewives. They are either regular churchgoers or who came to make confessions for their sins but do not know the sinner of rank order was waiting with romantic intentions.

He exploited them to suit sexual appetite. It is alleged he would lure young girls into personal conversations and, getting their numbers, would chat for hours together in a sexy language. Police sources said,” He would ask them to send pictures of their private parts which he wanted or by marking in a picture. It is alleged that there are intimate and, compromising position pictures of women over numbering 100 are in his laptop. Police were shocked to find such xxx rated sexual content treasure in his laptop”. 

At this stage, police arrested him on March 20, produced him before a court, and remanded him in judicial custody. Earlier, he was subjected to medical tests in a Government hospital. The cybercrime police registered a case against priest Benedict Anto under five sections, including misuse of information technology and indecency with women. He has a bad reputation with women, and similar complaints have already been filed against him at various police stations.

The sexual predator Priest Benedict Anto has his master’s degree in English from Annamalai University, Chidambaram, a BA in philosophy at Kerala University, and Philosophical studies at St. Mary’s Seminary in Thiruvananthapuram. He studied at Sacred Heart Seminary, Poonamallee and Kids Oxford School and St. Francis Higher Secondary School, Vavarai.

This is not the first case where a Christian priest has been accused of predatory sexual behavior. Opindia 2022 had reported about Priest Pondson John who was arrested for sexually abusing a minor girl twice, once at Church while ‘counselling’ her and once in her own home.

In 2018 we reported that A Priest, who was also a principal in a reputed English medium convent school in Pune, was arrested from Mumbai for allegedly sexually abusing a student.

The abuse by Church fathers is a global phenomenon. In 2019, an Argentinian court sentenced two Catholic priests to more than 40 years in prison in Mendoza after they were found guilty of the sexual abuse of as many as 10 deaf children at a Catholic-run school.

Similar incidents have been reported in other parts of the world, leading to calls for greater accountability and transparency within the Church.

Tamil Nadu: Two Church Pastors charged with POCSO in 2 separate incidents in one week

With controversy surrounding Father Benedict Anto, who sexually abused and filmed numerous Christian women who attend church, yet to subside, the news that another church pastor in the Tenkasi district has been accused of abusing women who attend the church has shocked many.

Stanley Kumar, a preacher at a church in Magizhvannanaathapuram near Alankulam in Tenkasi district, has been arrested by police for sexually abusing women. The members of the congregation have filed a complaint with the District Superintendent of Police saying that he misbehaved with women who attend the church. Based on the complaint, pastor Stanley Kumar has been arrested by the Tenkasi Police. It is worth noting that he also belongs to Kanyakumari.

In another such incident, the news of a 50-year-old man claiming to be an advocate and church employee raped a Class XI student several times in the guise of assisting her financially surfaced a few days ago.

Lawrence, 50, of Madurai’s Koodal Nagar, claiming to be a lawyer and working in the church, assured monetary support to a family in financial distress of a Class XI student from Ponmeni, Madurai.

Lawrence has taken advantage of their poverty by visiting their home on several occasions, claiming to be assisting them with his prayer. Later, he developed a relationship with the student and took photos and videos with her. He repeatedly threatened and sexually harassed her by showing those videos.

According to reports, the girl’s father is a construction site worker, and her two elder sisters are both over the age of 18. The incident was discovered after the 16-year-old girl’s mother observed her upset behavior. Her parents filed a complaint with All South Women Inspector Vimala on March 15. The police registered a case against Lawrence under the POCSO Act. The advocate has now been absconding. The police have launched a search operation to nab him.

References:

organiser.org
thecommunemag.com