Director of medical college in Kerala, ex-Bishop named in ED charge sheet

Kochi: The Director of a medical college in Kerala, a former Bishop of the South Kerala CSI Dioceses and others have been named in a charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate at a PMLA Court, here on Thursday.

The case pertains to embezzlement complaints given against the office bearers of the Dr Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College located in the capital city’s suburbs.

Those named in the ED charge sheet include Dr Bennet Abraham, Director of the medical college, who was also the CPI candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections against Congress sitting MP Shashi Tharoor, TT Praveen, the then Secretary of the Dioceses, former Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam and three others.

The embezzlement charge was first probed by the Kerala Police, which gave a clean chit to all those named in the complaint.

The complainants then approached the court, which ordered an ED probe in 2022.

The charge sheet that the ED filed on Thursday, is based on one of the few complaints.

The ED recently questioned all the accused and then came the filing of the charge sheet.

The complainants have alleged that Rs 500 crore, collected as donations from students who got admission to the medical college, was embezzled.

There were allegations that a portion of the money was sent illegally outside the country.