Siphoning of Methodist church funds alleged

​Vikarabad:  About Rs 5.2 crore Methodist Church funds have been swindled by a group of individuals holding responsible positions in the church.

A US citizen Crawford set up a hospital in the name of her daughter Halda in 1913 in 5.7 acres of land. Over a period of tem a Methodist church has been set up, a school has been opened and quarters have been built for the employees. The area on which the facilities located expanded to over 120 acres over a period of time.

The facilities took care of medical and health and educational needs of the poor. More than a century-old hospital catered to the needs of the people. Some years ago, Crawford passed away. To safeguard the properties, a trustee has been appointed for the Hyderabad region.

During the lifetime of Crawford, the people of the region derived benefit from the facilities. In course of time, following her death, the services remained affected. The number of students has been drastically cut from 4000 to mere 40. For want of funds, medical and health services have been drastically reduced. 

According to church bylaws, transactions carried out by the church in any region across the country should reflect in the central treasury account at Mumbai. Instead of crediting the funds in the Mumbai account, church officials DS Timothy diverted the funds received towards compensation into the SBI Chiragalli branch in Hyderabad (account number 35736421990).  

In fact, the funds should be deposited in the central treasury account but they were credited in the Hyderabad Regional Conference account. The local church groups are seething with anger at this against Timothy.

It is alleged that the individual had deposited Rs 25 lakh into the bank account of a industrial unit of Vikarabad and handed it over to several government officials, including revenue employees, towards bribe amount.  

A Revenue employee was tipped to be the single largest beneficiary of the bribe disbursal. A complaint has been lodged with the CBI, Central vigilance and enforcement b y church members to unearth the facts.