Fugitive Catholic priest arrested in Tamil Nadu
March 17th, 2012 - 11:41 pm ICT by IANSChennai, March 17 (IANS) Catholic priest Rev Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul was arrested in Erode in Tamil Nadu on charges of molesting a child in the US when he was there during 2004, police said Saturday.
Acting on an alert by Interpol, Tamil Nadu police arrested Rev Jeyapaul, 57, Friday evening and presented him in a court in Erode which ordered that he be handed over to Interpol officials in New Delhi.
The Tamil Nadu police had traced Rev Jeyapaul to a church in Erode, around 335 km from here.
The priest, a fugitive from US law has been charged with molesting a 14-year-old girl in the US in 2004 when he was at a pastoral ministry at Roseau county of Crookston Diocese in Minnesota.
He returned to India in 2005 and maintained a low profile. In 2010, the Archbishop of Madras Mylapore A.M. Chinnappa had asked Jeyapaul to return to the US to face the charges.
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Tags: catholic priest, friday evening, India, low profile, madras mylapore, march 17, New Delhi, old girl, pastoral ministry, tamil nadu police