Bengaluru: A city court accepted the 'B' report filed by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in a ‘sexual harassment’ and ‘intimidation’ case in which the archbishop, P.K. Samuel, of Central Diocese, Bengaluru (Church of South India) and a church member Vinod Dasan were the accused.
The XI Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Court absolved the duo of all charges levelled by a woman in February this year and asked the police to close the case.
The woman had accused the archbishop of sexual harassment and Dasan of intimidating her to withdraw the case she had filed against the archbishop in 2013. The FIR was registered at the Shivajinagar police station after the woman allegedly attempted suicide on January 31.
Archbishop Samuel told Deccan Chronicle that it was a false case filed against him and it was an attempt to displace him by tarnishing his image.
“I knew that the truth would prevail as I had faith in the judiciary. There is a group of people against whom action was taken for lack of discipline. They conspired and filed a false complaint against Dasan and I to tarnish our image," the archbishop said.
Mr Dasan too said that there is group in the church which is hell-bent on damaging archbishop's image. "I and archbishop were falsely accused of wrongdoings. The accusations were far from reality as proved in police investigation and in the court," Dasan said.
“I will initiate legal action as per law against all the conspirators who were involved in this concocted story," he added.
