Malayali priest shot dead in Nepal

Thrissur: Johnson Moylan, a Salesian priest, was shot dead by a gang at Sirsia in Nepal on Tuesday, according to his colleagues with Don Bosco India. He was 60.

Fr. Moylan, who hailed from Ollur here, had been working in Nepal since 1996.

Don Bosco priests said that a five-member gang entered the Mission of the Salesians at Sirsia, locked assistant parish priest Mathew Puthupallil in his room and intruded into Fr. Moylan’s room. When the gang left the place 15 minutes later, Fr. Moylan was found lying in a pool of blood. He was shot in the chest and the stomach. Fr. Mathew called the police for help and alerted his colleagues at Kolkata. The police arrived from Dharan, 45 km from Sirsia, in the morning.

Son of Moylan Rappayi and Rosa of Ollur, Fr. Moylan became a Salesian in 1967. He was ordained priest at the Bangalore Province of the order in 1977. He had served as assistant parish priest in different parts of Andhra Pradesh. He was rector at the Pezzonipet, Cudappa and Hyderabad centres from 1986 to 1994.

Fr. Moylan started centres at Dharan and Sirsia in 1996 and 2000 respectively. Don Bosco priests said that Fr. Moylan’s body would be laid to rest at the Bandel basilica.

Bad road: bus service suspended

Kozhikode: Various organisations have joined the protest against the delay in resurfacing roads dug up for laying pipes for the Japan-aided drinking water scheme in the district.

The roads have turned into swamps in the rain.

The District Bus Operators Organisation suspended its services in the Balussery-Kurachund route in the district from Tuesday owing to the pitiable condition of the roads there.

NDF: murders betray CPI(M) intolerance

KANNUR: The National Development Front (NDF) alleged that the killing of two of its workers in the district by workers of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) betrays the latter’s organisational intolerance and its attitude of dominance.

Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, NDF general secretary P. Abdul Majeed Faizi said that NDF workers Muhammad Fasal and Zainuddin had been killed at Thalassery and Kakkayangad over a period of 18 months. Both had been done to death without any provocation as neither of them had attacked CPI(M) workers. Urging the CPI(M) leadership to explain what crime the two had committed that had provoked its cadres to kill them, Mr. Faizi said the latest killing at Kakkayangad was in defiance of the CPI(M)’s own declaration of peace in the presence of Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in the wake of the outbreak of political killings by CPI(M) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers. The murder of Zainuddin had been carried out with full knowledge and consent of the party, he said adding that these attacks were taking place in the home district of Mr. Balakrishnan and party State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.


Mr. Faizi asked CPI(M) leaders to make clear what the NDF should do to stop its workers being killed. He also alleged that the CPI(M)’s charge that its workers arrested in the Zainuddin murder case had been beaten up by the police was pressure tactics to subvert the police investigation. The CPI(M) had earlier denied the police of its professional freedom during the investigation into the Fasal murder case, he added. NDF zonal convener R.M. Abdurrahim and division convener K.K. Hisham also were present at the press meet.

CBI files report on Abhaya case

Kochi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed in a sealed cover a report on the progress of the investigation in the Sister Abhaya death case.

Justice V. Ramkumar had earlier directed the CBI to submit the progress report when a petition filed by Thomas, father of Sister Abhaya, seeking to expedite the investigation came up for hearing.

The body of the 21-year-old inmate of a convent hostel in Kottayam, was found in March 1992 in the well on the convent premises.

While taking the report on record, the court orally observed that the investigation seemed to be a never-ending process. The CBI, being the premier investigation agency, should try to keep up its credibility, the court observed. The court also orally observed that the agency should take steps to complete the investigation forthwith.

Protest against Minister’s remark

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Xavy Mano Mathew, proprietor of the Merchiston tea estate at Ponmudi, has alleged that Forest Minister Benoy Viswom is nursing a “personal grudge” against him.

At a press conference held in the city on Tuesday, Mr. Mathew protested against a remark made by the Minister in the Assembly recently in connection with the purchase of his estate. The Minister, describing the Opposition as “friends of Xavy Mano Mathew,” had said that Mr. Mathew had purchased the estate from Jayasree Tea and Industries Limited when the UDF was in power in the State. The sale was registered despite the area being notified as an ecologically fragile land, the Minister had said.

Mr. Mathew said he had all the required documents with him to prove his ownership over the estate.