Ooty: The extradition of Catholic priest Fr Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, accused of sexually assaulting two teenage girls during his tenure at the Crookston Diocese in Northern Minnesota, US, during 2004-05, now looks imminent with a Delhi court recommending that India should concede the request from the U.S. to secure the ‘fugitive criminal’ to stand trial there. Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Ajay Garg in Delhi said prima facie case had been made out for extraditing Jeyapaul, accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl who, according to records, is undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. The other victim of the priest was 16-years-old. The US court had begun prosecution process after the first victim, Megan Peterson, now 20, complained that Jeyapaul raped her several times after she went to speak to him about becoming a nun. The priest vehemently denied the allegations, made after he returned to Tamil Nadu to attend to his ailing mother.
On his return, Jeyapaul was appointed as the director of community education at Ooty diocese, but was placed under suspension in 2010 when the charges surfaced. Fr. A. Antonysamy, vicar-general of Ooty diocese of the Roman Catholic Church told DC that the diocese had held an enquiry and suspended Jeyapaul as soon as the allegations surfaced. “He left Ooty mid-2010 and we learnt subsequently that he was arrested at Thalavadi near Erode in 2012 by Interpol intervention and has been lodged in Tihar prison in Delhi since then”, said the vicar-general. The Interpol could have been activated after a court in Roseau County in US issued arrest warrant against Jeyapaul on December 28, 2010. Some reports have said that the Crookston Diocese and Ms Peterson agreed for payment of $ 750,000 to settle the lawsuit and the amount was covered by the diocese’s insurance. That was on July 13, 2011, prior to the trial.
But now with the U.S. court going ahead with the trial and the Delhi magistrate advising extradition, it appears that Jeyapaul could soon be on his way to face trial in Minnesota. Magistrate Garg rejected his counsel’s plea that the priest had been falsely implicated due to (racial) discrimination. "The instant case is based on the testimony of a young girl, duly investigated by competent authorities who have no concern with the appointment of fugitive criminal as a priest.
“Therefore, chances of false implication of the fugitive criminal are prime facie ruled out. Further, fugitive criminal would get an opportunity to raise his defence and assail the prosecution case at the time of trial,” Garg said. The Ministry of External Affairs had moved Garg’s court saying that a request was received from the US in February 2011 seeking Jeyapaul’s extradition to stand trial in the case. If convicted by the US court, the ex-priest could be jailed up to 30 years.
