Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Puthenvelikkara, Ernakulam, Kerala, India · 2016

India: parish priest convicted of raping a minor parishioner who came to him for confession

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Disposition and response

Material that narrows or disputes the record

Appellate history

Conviction upheld; sentence reduced from double life imprisonment to 20 years. Exact appellate decision date not confirmed in sourcing and is omitted rather than guessed.

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

parish priest, Lourd Matha Church, Kottapuram diocese

Organization

Lourd Matha Church, Puthenvelikkara, Diocese of Kottapuram

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The victim, an eighth-standard parishioner, first came under the defendant's authority through confession; he used that pastoral access and her interest in music to arrange repeated private contact.

Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2016-12-08 · conviction; sentence reduced on appeal, conviction upheld

Special Court (POCSO), Ernakulam, Kerala, India; Kerala High Court (appeal). Fr Edwin Figarez, vicar of Lourd Matha Church, was convicted of repeatedly raping a 14-year-old parishioner who first came to him for confession, and was sentenced to double life imprisonment plus a fine of Rs 2.15 lakh. On appeal, a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court left the conviction intact but reduced the sentence to 20 years without remission.

Documented coercion mechanisms

pastoral authority exercised through the confessional
exploiting the child's interest in music to arrange private access

Cited record

Sources

advocacy archive court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Kerala Catholic priest gets double life imprisonment, Rs 2.15-lakh fine for raping minor girl', BishopAccountability.org, Dec. 2016.: Report of the original trial-court conviction and sentence.
partisan outlet lead index appellate disposition 'Father Edwin Figarez gets his POCSO sentence reduced by Kerala High Court', HinduPost.: Report of the Kerala High Court's sentence reduction, confirming the conviction was not disturbed.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://www.bishop-accountability.org/2016/12/kerala-catholic-priest-gets-double-life-imprisonment-rs-2-15-lakh-fine-for-raping-minor-girl/ Corpus classification: advocacy-archive-court-reporting; evidentiary role: verdict-and-sentencing-report. SHA-256 34d98f7cbdc686deb83355d6829a2db073527dd1539c392fe023ca3b2520da74
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://hindupost.in/featured/father-edwin-figarez-gets-his-pocso-sentence-reduced-by-kerala-high-court/ Corpus classification: partisan-outlet-lead-index; evidentiary role: appellate-disposition. SHA-256 f13a4461342a1255736182b15d07b00e1fbf8c7ae7335fc05d319f432c149eef
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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