Nearly a year after the murder of Fr Thomas, the 65-year-old rector of St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary in Malleswaram, the Bangalore police have cracked the case with the arrest of three priests, who allegedly bludgeoned him to death after he caught them red-handed while stealing documents from Seminary.
On April 1, Fr Thomas was found dead with multiple head injuries in the seminary. The breakthrough in the investigations came after the police subjected a few suspects including the three priests, who were seminary on the fateful night of March 31, to narco analysis.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Pronab Mohanty, who headed the investigation, told reporters that the police had arrested William Patrick, the priest of the Seminary, who was sleeping in the adjacent room when the ghastly murder took place, besides Ilyas and Peter, both priests in the same Seminary.
Mr Mohanty said the accused, who were unhappy with Fr Thomas for being sidelined, had hatched a conspiracy to defame him for which they required certain documents pertaining to the seminary. As per the plan, they tried to steal the documents when Fr Thomas caught them red-handed. Fearing their plans will be revealed, they attacked him with blunt weapons, killing him on the spot and escaped, police said.
