TURA: A missionary priest has been arrested in North Garo Hills after passengers of a night bus he was travelling in handed him over to Bajengdoba police for allegedly attempting to molest a co-passenger on Friday night.
The accused priest, identified as Father Biju Joseph, belonging to the Guwahati Provincial of the Missionaries of St Francis De Sales (MSFS) congregation, was serving as the parish priest of Sumonpara where the MSFS has only recently started work in the education sector.
The congregation also runs the St. Francis De Sales School in remote Nangalbibra area of South Garo Hills. According to the police complaint, the accused priest was travelling from Shillong to Tura on the Millennium Wave night bus on Friday night when he allegedly tried to hold the hand of a woman seated next to him several times.
The incident is said to have occurred after the night bus left Paikan en route to Tura shortly after midnight.
The 27-year-old woman passenger, working in the Health Department, raised an alarm and other passengers soon came to her rescue. They accosted the accused priest and he was slapped by some angry passengers.
When the bus reached Bajengdoba, the passengers handed him over to the police along with his luggage in which police found four bottles of expensive brandy.
The accused priest has been booked under Section 354 9(A) of the Indian Penal Code for outraging the modesty of a woman and forwarded to the court.
