The seminary, where 65-year-old rector Father K.J. Thomas was found murdered in Bangalore on Monday, had been ransacked leading to the police suspecting that it could be a murder for gain. However, the police did not find any valuables missing. They are yet to ascertain the motive for the crime.
The police said that the reception area, the museum and the rector’s room had been ransacked. But the priest’s gadgets, including a laptop, an iPad and a mobile phone, were intact. The police suspected that a crowbar had been used to force open the grills of the seminary classrooms as well.
Fr. Thomas was residing in his room near the main entrance. However, the police suspected that the murder took place in the corridor following which the body was dragged into the coffee room at the end of the corridor. The police said that the rector had suffered a cut near his forehead and one on the nose as well.
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“There was no sign of forced entry to the rector’s room. It is suspected that he ventured out of his room and was killed while resisting the intruders. However, this is yet to be ascertained,” said a senior police official.
The police also said that the attackers had made an attempt to break into the room of procurator Fr. Patrick.
The police also said that thunder and rain may have muffled any sound made by the intruders making it difficult for residents to have heard anything at all.
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Fr. Patrick said that he had heard noises around 2.30 a.m. but he did not venture out to check. There were two security guards stationed at the front and rear entrances to the seminary, the police said. However, the security guard in the night shift, Mann Singh, told the police that he did not hear anything because of the rain.
On Monday morning, Fr. Thomas’s sister, Jacqueline, arrived here from Puducherry and tried calling him, but he did not respond to any of her phone calls. When she went to the seminary, she found the police there and came to know about the murder. She was later taken to a convent nearby.
The police suspected that the attackers, at least two of them, entered the premises through the front entrance as they found footsteps and bloodstains in the vicinity.
Even as the police are investigating if it was a robbery attempt, sources said that another incident occurred about four days ago wherein three men had jumped over the wall of a nearby church.
Rev. Arokiaraj Sathish Kumar of Christ the King Church recalled that on Thursday night three men had jumped over the wall of his church. The gardener, Aralayya, spotted them and raised an alarm. The three then punched him before fleeing. However, this incident was not reported to the police at the time.
The police said that five teams have been formed to investigate the case.