MUMBAI: Archbishop of Mumbai Cardinal

has told Bombay high court there was no question of intimating the police about the alleged sexual abuse of a minor by a priest in November 2015 as they were already informed by the parents who had registered a complaint.

Gracias and two bishops, Dominic Savio Fernandes and John Rodrigues, have filed a petition to quash a Pocso court's order of May 7, 2019 to the police to investigate whether they "conducted any inquiry and despite having received knowledge did not give information to the police" under section 19 of the Pocso Act. They also want a recent FIR by the

Nagar police quashed.

While section 19 deals with reporting of sexual offences, section 21 (2) prescribes imprisonment up to a year if a person in charge of an institution fails to report an offence by a subordinate under his control. The priest, Fr Lawrence Johnson (52), is facing trial. In February 2019, the minor's father sought action against the trio.

The petition states that the boy's father filed a complaint in respect of "the alleged incident of November 27, 2015 on November 30, 2015. "Therefore there was no question of again intimating the concerned police station about the alleged offence because already the police were informed and the police had already taken cognisance by registering an FIR, therefore there is no offence committed by the petitioner no 3 (Cardinal) as alleged by the complainant for non-compliance of section 19 of PocsoAct,'' it adds.

The petition informs that the

directed an inquiry as soon as he received the November 30, 2015 complaint letter and learnt, a day later in Rome, that the FIR was registered. "Therefore, the present petitioners cannot be held liable for prosecution under section 21 of PocsoAct for non-compliance of section 19." The petition says the trio is "innocent" and "falsely implicated" in this case.