Malankara Varghese murder case leads to Church

KOCHI: The CBI unit, Thiruvananthapuram, on Friday quizzed Jacobite Church supreme head Catholicos Baselios Thomas-I in connection with the Malankara Varghese murder case at the CBI office here. The Catholicos appeared before the CBI at its office in Kochi. According to CBI sources, he was quizzed by the officials for three hours.Varghese, also known as Malankara Varghese, a member of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church’s managing committee and a timber merchant, was hacked to death by a gang outside a car workshop on the MC Road near Perumbavoor on December 5, 2002.Though the murder was initially described as a result of business rivalry, his relatives suspected the involvement of the rival Church faction. The CBI took over the investigation following a High Court directive in 2007. The CBI first booked Joy Varghese alias Cement Joy who hired people to murder Malankara Varghese.He later admitted to the role of Fr Varghese Thekkekara, a priest and the manager of the Angamaly Diocese of the rival Jacobite Church, in the conspiracy in the murder of Malankara Varghese. He was arrested by the CBI last year.The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Ernakulam, in February this year directed the CBI to re-investigate the case on a petition filed by his wife Saramma Varghese.