The Hindu : National : Crime Branch will probe death of priest

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Crime Branch will probe death of priest

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

A nun from the Missionaries of Charity offers her tribute to Fr. Bernard Digal at the airport in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.

BHUBANESWAR: The Crime Branch of Orissa police will investigate into the death of Fr. Bernard Digal, a Catholic priest from Kandhamal district who died in Chennai two days ago. He was badly attacked by a mob in Kandhamal during the anti-Christian violence in the district.

A case pertaining to the death of the priest was formally registered at the Kharavel Nagar police station of the city on Thursday after post-mortem was conducted on the body at the Capital hospital.

The body, which was brought to the city from Chennai during the day, would be cremated here on Friday.

The case was registered on the basis of a complaint lodge by Fr. Joseph Kalathil, Vicar General of the Archbishop’s House here. It was registered under Sections 147, 148, 149, 436, 307 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code, sources said.

State Director General of Police Manmohan Praharaj told The Hindu that the Crime Branch will take up the investigation after the case was formally transferred to the Kandhamal police.

Fr. Kalathil said that in his complaint to the police he narrated about the mob attack on Fr. Digal in Sankarakhol area of Kandhamal, and his treatment at different hospitals in Bhubaneswar, Mumbai and Chennai. Fr. Digal died at the St. Thomas Hospital in Chennai on Tuesday evening.

Fr. Bernard Digal, who was Treasurer of the Archdiocese and resided at the Archbishop’s House here, had gone to Kandhamal on August 23 for official work, Fr. Kalathil said.

Communal violence broke out in Kandhamal after Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati and four others were killed by suspected Maoists in the district on August 23 evening.

Fr. Digal was born in January 1962 in Tiangia village under Raikia police station of Kandhamal. He was ordained a priest in May 1992 for the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar.

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