January 24, 2012
Posted by geoconger in Church Of England News Paper Church of South India, Corruption.Tags: Manickam Dorai
Bishop Dorai leaving the CSI synod hall after being turned away on 13 Jan 2012 : Photo CCC
A trial court of the Church of South India (CSI) has found the Bishop in Coimbatore guilty of misconduct and directed he be removed from office and deposed from ordained ministry.
On 9 January 2012 the Moderator of the CSI, the Rt. Rev. S. Vasanthakumar released a letter written to the clergy of the diocese reporting that the synod court had “unanimously passed the sentence that Bishop Manickam Dorai cannot be continued as Diocesan Bishop any longer.”
The “Bishopric of the Coimbatore Diocese has become vacant with immediate effect,” the letter stated, and as per the CSI’s canons, the moderator of the CSI will serve as diocesan bishop until a new bishop is elected. Bishop Vasanthakumar asked the clergy to “kindly make an announcement of the above mentioned facts during the worship services in your churches” on 15 January.
On 2 July 2010 the executive committee of the CSI’s General Synod placed Bishop Dorai on an indefinite leave of absence and dissolved the diocese’s executive council. The bishop and his cronies were accused of embezzling diocesan funds and taking kickbacks on construction projects amounting to over £500,000.
An October 2010 report by a fact finding committee led by retired Karnataka High Court Justice Michael Saldhana found evidence of criminal behavior by the bishop. It said Bishop Dorai had pledged diocesan bank accounts, trust funds and pension funds as collateral for personal loans, sold admissions to diocesan schools, took kickbacks on building contracts and diverted diocesan funds for his personal use. They found the bishop had authorized the sale of diocesan property to real estate developers at approximately 20 per cent of their market value, in return for what the committee believed were kickbacks from the real estate developers.
“These transactions are not a mere case of mismanagement but point to rank dishonesty and criminality,” the committee said.
On 17 May 2011 the Crime Branch-CID of the Tamil Nadu Police filed a 500 page charge sheet with the Chief Magistrate in Coimbatore, accusing Bishop Dorai, his two brothers, and four other accomplices with defrauding his diocese of over £500,000. The former bishop’s criminal trial is expected to begin later this year sources tell The Church of England Newspaper.
The former bishop’s removal from the ministry must be affirmed by the CSI Synod executive committee, which is scheduled to meet later this month in Kanyakumari. However, his dismissal has already been enforced. When the former bishop attempted to enter last week’s meeting of the CSI General Synod, he was ejected.
Should Bishop Dorai seek a civil injunction to block his removal, the CCC – a lay anti-corruption advocacy group in the CSI – reports the “CSI Constitution states in Rule 28 of Chapter XI on ‘The discipline of the church and settlement of disputes’ that ‘No decision or judgment of the Court of the Synod shall be subject to appeal or revision by any person or court outside the Church of South India.’ Were Bishop Dorai to challenge his dismissal before the Madras High Court it would be interesting to see how this provision holds up as it appears to be prima facie in violation of the Indian [civil] Constitution.”
7 comments:
So there are provisions to dismiss a Bishop.KPK was telling nothing will touch him other than the God Almighty.
Yes,it was his propaganda.I know that the synod had taken a decision to take away his financial power.Thank God.He had better to resign and go.
It is good to see some stricture sown by the synod to control the black sheep of the church.But the seriousness is how many will follow in future
Its very sad that people those who are in god service are like this .. need to give them badly... But one thing if this above comment person (LALU)is from medak? if ur are from medak diocese ur not eliable to talk all this... one day u ppl also face same thing in front of every one in hyderabad.
if one Bishop is accused of $ 500,000 and removed from service well, then there are serveral top level white collar Whales swmining in the rivers
Bishop Guruvilla is kind man and Gentleman. He is working for the welfare of the Dalits and Tribal. some racist people in the diocese are against Bishop in all good things. These people are curses of the Diocese.
People (leaders or dealers, laity or clergy) who after experiencing the grace of and decide to walk away from it, or use it as a license, they will never repent, but grow from bad to worse and make their lives and others miserable, continuing to crucify Christ as the Word says. We have enough examples and warnings on this from the Word of God and from the Indian and the World Church history of the past and the present. It will be good that at least some are exposed while all of them are going to be exposed one day or at least in the eternity. I know of an Indian Mission leader who had 9 different personal and benami (spelling!)account in one bank a certain city alone and have been swindling mega million crores of money over decades along with his wife. When he was confronted by the society members, he was able to close down the society and start a company, exchanging his profile with another one. As long as they have God fathers in India or America, they will continue to flourish till their day of doom !!! I wonder what Bible they read and translate?!!!
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