A Catholic priest accused of human trafficking surrendered to police in
Kerala on Saturday along with three other men, police said.
Father
Jaison Kollannur, former secretary of the Youth Commission of the
Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council surrendered with Raju Thomas, Titu
Thomas and Jomon Thomas, said Amose Mammen, assistant commissioner of
the police Crime Records Bureau in Kochi.
All four were released on bail, Mammen told ucanews.com.
Police
registered a human trafficking case against Father Kollannur and his
associates in December. All four have been at large since then, although
they received anticipatory bail from Kerala High Court, which directed
them to surrender on or before January 19.
The bail condition
required the accused to surrender their passports to the court and
report to the investigation officer every Friday. Each accused was also
ordered to give personal bonds and sureties of 25,000 rupees (US$465).
According
to police, a tip from the US Embassy in Chennai led to the
investigation of a human trafficking network in the state. The four are
accused of trying to send 42 unskilled youths to an international
seminar in the US. The candidates, who are carpenters and drivers, were
presented as scholars in the field of education.
On November 19
police arrested the head of Shadwell, an educational management and
career guidance company in Kochi, and its human resource manager.
“We found that Shadwell faked certificates with the motive of smuggling unskilled laborers to the US,” Mammen said.
During
interrogation, Shadwell head Tom Baby confessed they were working in
league with Youth Commission Secretary Father Kollannur and other
officials from the Church.
Shadwell charged 100,000 rupees for
every person successfully smuggled to the US and the priest received
50,000 rupees as commission for recruiting and assisting the process,
police said. They used the Youth Commission bank account to make
transactions appear credible.
“Our investigations found that the
accused had earlier successfully trafficked unskilled persons to Spain
and Australia. The priest was planning to take another group of youths
to Brazil this year,” Mammen said.
Father Kollannur organized
youth guidance seminars in several parts of Kerala as part of the Kerala
Catholic Youth Movement and used the Church organization to run the
human trafficking network. The priest told the youths that they would
get good employment once they reached the US.
“We have made a
thorough investigation and recorded the statements of 35 victims. We
could not record the statements of seven victims who had gone abroad for
employment,” said the police official.
The priest was dismissed from his Youth Commission job shortly after police registered the case in December.