Shame: Church fathers gang-raped a woman

Kerala, June 27: In a shocking incident, five priests of the Malankara Orthodox Church that has headquarters in Kottayam of Kerala state have been transferred over allegations of sexually exploiting a woman from the same church, a report said.

All the accused priests have been sent five on leave by the church authority after they were accused of blackmailing and sexually abusing a married woman over a few years. All the priests were working with the parishes under four diocese of the Kottayam-headquartered church.

The church secretary, Biju Oommen, reportedly said they had received a complaint from the husband of the victim and took immediate action. In his complaint, the woman's husband alleged that the accused used her confession, which is supposed to be kept confidential, to blackmail her and sexually exploit her, the report said.

The victim's husband has alleged that one of the priests who had first exploited his wife was blackmailing her. When she sought help on this from another priest, he too, threatened her and shared her contact with another fellow priest and in the end, she came under duress from at least five priests, the report said.

The report said that the Orthodox Church was shocked as the episode was criticised heavily on the social media which dented the image of the church. Meanwhile, the victim woman is yet to file a police complaint, the report said.