Probe into Priest’s missing money
Desk
Chandigarh, April 03, 2019: An inquiry has been ordered into a Catholic priest’s allegations that the police who had raided his residence have not disclosed the full amount of cash seized from him.
Punjab’s Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta on April 1 marked an inquiry to IGP, Crime, Praveen Sinha, to examine Father Antony Madassery’s reported claims, official sources said in Chandigarh.
After raiding Father Madassery’s residence in Jalandhar on March 29, the police from Khanna said they had seized 96.6 million rupees of unaccounted cash. The police also detained the priest and three others and released them after hours of interrogation on March 30.
Father Madassery, director of “Sahodaya” (rising together), a group of companies, later alleged at a later press conference that the police had actually taken 166.5 million rupees from him. He claimed the money was legally collected from the sale of books in schools of Jalandhar diocese. He also alleged that the police had abducted him at gunpoint.
The Khanna police had claimed they had seized “hawala” or black money from six persons, including Father Madassery, from a location near the GT Road at Doraha in Khanna. They also dismissed the priest’s allegations as baseless. They said the money was seized from SUVs during checking following a tip-off.
The police had also claimed that they had prior information about the movement of hawala money in the vehicles from Jalandhar to Ambala.
The police had handed over the cash and the accused to Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate officials for further investigation.