Family members of an Indian Bishop who died in a road accident three years ago have demanded an impartial probe into his death amid suspicions of foul play. Bishop Thomas Thennatt, 65, of Gwalior Diocese in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, died in a car crash on Dec. 14, 2018.
“We have serious doubts over his accidental death. We believe he was killed,” said Clara-mma Constatine, a younger sibling of the bishop.
A retired nurse, Constatine, accompanied by her son-in-law, Pastor Lovers Masih, held a press conference in the state capital Bhopal on March 27 to announce the family’s plan to move the high court requesting a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Speaking to us, she claimed that diocesan officials had intimidated the family after the accident. “My brother’s body was buried in a hurry, without the mandatory post mortem, and the diocese denied us permission to take his body to our home state Kerala,” she added.
Constatine alluded to the fact that there were three others including the driver traveling in the car at the time of the accident. But none of them suffered even a minor scratch on their bodies and gave contradictory statements about the whole incident, raising suspicions.