Anuja Susan Varghese By

Express News Service

KOCHI: Fr Antony Madassery, a close aide of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who is an accused in the nun rape case, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday for possessing unaccounted money. An amount of Rs 9.67 crore was reportedly seized by the Khanna police from Fr Antony’s residence at Partappura near Jalandhar in a raid.

In view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the police have deployed more personnel in several parts of the city to monitor the movement of unaccounted cash, noted the officials in a press release on Friday.

It also mentioned they have traced the priest’s car after they received information from intelligence sources. “While conducting the check, three cars were caught - PB-10GB-0269 (Ford Ecosport), PB-02-BN-3938 (Innova) and PB-06-AQ-8020 (Maruti Breeza) - and they were coming from Ludhiana side. A total of six persons, including a woman, were taken into custody.

One of the occupants of the car was Antony, who is the priest of the church at Partappura,” said the press release. Partappura is the Generalate headquarters of the Franciscan Missionaries of Jesus, founded by Bishop Franco, and Fr Antony is the director general of this congregation.

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Madasserry reportedly stayed in Kerala for around three weeks when the bishop was in judicial custody and returned to Jalandhar with him. “Fr Antony had also made attempts to defame the victim nun before the case was filed by her in June. He had approached the parish priest at Kodanad church with some letters and documents to defame her in early June,” said Sr Anupama, one among the five nuns who had protested demanding the arrest of Bishop Franco.

Meanwhile, Sr Anupama also added these developments are signs indicating those on the side of wrong will always be punished. “God has seen all our struggles and fights for justice. We hope Franco also gets punished soon for all his wrongdoings,” Sr Anupama added.However, Jalandhar diocesan authorities did not comment on the issue.