A criminal case has been filed against a priest running an orphanage in Virar for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl.
MUMBAI: A criminal case has been filed against a priest running an orphanage in Virar for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl, a charge denied by the accused. The case has been filed against Alexander George at the Nallasopara police station.
A police team has been dispatched to Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, where he is currently believed to be living.
Meanwhile, the police on Friday arrested Anandi Joseph, the woman in charge of the ‘Wings of Refuge Orphanage’, for trying to “hush up the case”. Senior Police Inspector of the Nallasopara police station Bajirao Bhonsle said a woman teacher had approached the police after she “learnt of the rape”.
The complaint was filed on Thursday by the victim’s tuition teacher Kavita Bansode.
Bansode said she got to know about the incident a few days ago when the victim started crying during tuition. She complained of bleeding while urinating, the teacher said.
The girl, whose two sisters were also living in the orphanage, said she was raped. George would call her to his room and abuse her sexually, the teacher said in the complaint.
The girl, who has been with the orphanage for the seven years and studied in class V in a nearby school, has been sent to Bhagwati hospital for medical check-up, Bhonsle said. Her sisters informed the police that George used to beat them and made them do chores like washing clothes.
The victim’s sisters are no longer in the orphanage.
“Recently, my sister told us about the inhuman acts of the priest. We got terrified and ran away,” said the elder sister.Joseph refuted the allegations saying the tuition teacher was trying to malign him and the orphanage.
Meanwhile, speaking to DNA from Kerala, George claimed he was innocent. “I have done no wrong. A person who now runs the school has been threatening to close down my orphanage and ministry ever since we had an altercation. The two children who have given statements against me were in his custody two days prior to the complaint being lodged,” he said.
“The person running the school now was upset with me because I reprimanded him when I came to know about an adulterous relationship he had with a woman even though he had a wife and two grown-up children,” George said.
Bhonsle said the police were investigating if the priest had done the same with other children.
The orphanage, located near Vijay Nagar, opposite Laxmi Narayan hospital, has 50 residents. It has centres in Bhayander and Goregaon, besides Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
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