June 1966. The body of Mariyakkutty, a 43-year-old widow and mother of five children was found in a tea garden near a stream called Maadatharuvi in Ranni. She had multiple stab wounds on her. The murder became sensational when it was reported that some people had seen Mariyakutty with a Roman Catholic priest in cassocks walking towards Maadatharuvi, hours before she was murdered. One week later 37-year-old Father Benedict Onamkulam, Manager of St. Joseph's Orphanage Press, Changanasseri, was arrested.
It was believed that when Fr Benedict was posted as a parish priest in Alappuzha, he and Mariyakutty, who had married thrice, became friendly. She left her third husband when he suffered from a paralytic stroke. She returned to her own house and worked as a housemaid. On the pretext of giving her a job, the priest brought Mariyakutty to Maadatharuvi and killed her in cold blood. Throughout the case, the priest said he knew some secrets but they were part of the confessions he heard and he could not, therefore, reveal them even if he was killed. The District Sessions Judge awarded him the death penalty and five years of rigorous imprisonment. It was the first time a Catholic priest was found guilty of murder.
The church took up the case and appealed to the High Court. It engaged A.S.R. Chari, India's leading criminal lawyer, who charged Rs 10,000 per case (we are talking 1960s mind you). Chari argued that nobody could kill even a chicken with the knife with which the priest supposedly killed Mariyakutty. He brought out the inconsistencies in the statements of witnesses. Freed of all charges, Fr Benedict got back his cassock but the scar remained. He was not given any parish duty and he remained confined to a home for the elderly priests, near Kottayam Medical College.
Thirty-four years later..... Year 2000.
K.K. Thomas and K.K. Cherian, sons of a doctor visited Fr. Benedict and told him that Mariyakutty had died while their father was trying to abort her child, which belonged to an estate owner. Later the doctor's daughters also visited the priest and told him the same story. What forced them to reveal the story was a series of mishaps in the family before and after the doctor died. In the meantime, the estate owner, who impregnated Mariyakkutty, had also died. Fr Benedict heard the story silently but kept it to himself. Eleven more months passed when finally the family told the Press about what had actually happened. The world realized that he was innocent and the murder was foisted on him. A few days later, on January 11, 2001, Fr Benedict passed away.
Two feature films had been made on the Mariyakutty murder - Maadatharuvi starring Sheela and Mariyakkutty starring Miss Kumari. This resurfaced in the local media in 2010 when the Changanassery Bishop opened Father Benedict's tomb for prayers at Athirampuzha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBjfRJ58l4A&fbclid=IwAR2bWchL-iZs-WDoYbMbBZmh6W_pQzSJ24EPPIEiSEymwxpyF5D9AC_ok_8
(2016)
It was believed that when Fr Benedict was posted as a parish priest in Alappuzha, he and Mariyakutty, who had married thrice, became friendly. She left her third husband when he suffered from a paralytic stroke. She returned to her own house and worked as a housemaid. On the pretext of giving her a job, the priest brought Mariyakutty to Maadatharuvi and killed her in cold blood. Throughout the case, the priest said he knew some secrets but they were part of the confessions he heard and he could not, therefore, reveal them even if he was killed. The District Sessions Judge awarded him the death penalty and five years of rigorous imprisonment. It was the first time a Catholic priest was found guilty of murder.
The church took up the case and appealed to the High Court. It engaged A.S.R. Chari, India's leading criminal lawyer, who charged Rs 10,000 per case (we are talking 1960s mind you). Chari argued that nobody could kill even a chicken with the knife with which the priest supposedly killed Mariyakutty. He brought out the inconsistencies in the statements of witnesses. Freed of all charges, Fr Benedict got back his cassock but the scar remained. He was not given any parish duty and he remained confined to a home for the elderly priests, near Kottayam Medical College.
Thirty-four years later..... Year 2000.
K.K. Thomas and K.K. Cherian, sons of a doctor visited Fr. Benedict and told him that Mariyakutty had died while their father was trying to abort her child, which belonged to an estate owner. Later the doctor's daughters also visited the priest and told him the same story. What forced them to reveal the story was a series of mishaps in the family before and after the doctor died. In the meantime, the estate owner, who impregnated Mariyakkutty, had also died. Fr Benedict heard the story silently but kept it to himself. Eleven more months passed when finally the family told the Press about what had actually happened. The world realized that he was innocent and the murder was foisted on him. A few days later, on January 11, 2001, Fr Benedict passed away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBjfRJ58l4A&fbclid=IwAR2bWchL-iZs-WDoYbMbBZmh6W_pQzSJ24EPPIEiSEymwxpyF5D9AC_ok_8
(2016)
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