Kochi, Friday, 11 June 2010: Fr. Thekkekara, the prime accused of Malankara Vargheese murder was today granted anticipatory bail by the High Court. The Court also advised the priest to appear before the Chief Judicial Majistrate Court, here within seven days time.

Earlier report

On investigation, the CBI’s Chennai unit, which began in September 2007, accused 19 people of the murder and said it was possibly due to the long standing feud between the Malankara Orthodox Church, headquartered in Kottayam, and the Syrian Jacobite Church, which has its headquarters in Ernakulam district.

The century-old feud between the two churches has always been a bother for successive governments in the state and on several occasions in the past feuds between the followers of the two churches have ended in brawls.

Initially, the murder of Varghese was considered a crime conducted by his business rivals, but five long years of probe by the state police’s crime branch yielded nothing conclusive.

Varghese’s widow then approached the Kerala High Court and in September 2007, the court asked the CBI to launch the probe.
The truth came out last month when the CBI arrested Joy Varghese alias Cement Joy, who confessed he had hired the criminals who committed the murder for a large sum of money.