Afghan Church trustees move HC

Former Bishop of Bombay, Baiju Gavit, and other trustees of Bombay Diocesan Trust Association, which runs the Afghan Church in Colaba, have moved Bombay High Court, urging it to quash a complaint of forgery and cheating filed against them at Colaba police station.

Gavit, fellow-trustees Bishop Vijay Sathe and Shrikant Salvi and the current Bishop of Pune, Rajnikant Salvi, have told the court in their application, filed earlier this month, that an activist, Cyril Dara, had baselessly accused them of striking illegal deals, worth crores of rupees, with various builders for development of the land on which Afghan Church, a heritage structure, stands.

Gavit has stated that in 1992, the defence estate officer had claimed that the Afghan Church property vested with the trust should actually be vested with the ministry of defence. His application was heard by the superintendent of Bombay City Survey and Land Records from 1996-2004. On September 23, 2004, the superintendent rejected the defence estate officer’s claim, and held that Afghan Church property was rightly vested with the trust.

In 2006, the trust applied to the charity commissioner for sanctioning development of the trust land. It was at that time, the petition has stated, that Dara and his associate, Sandeep Gaikwad, had raised objection to the development.

“Dara suddenly embarked upon a mission of becoming ‘saviour’ of Colaba and in his zeal of continuing his mission Dara filed bogus police complaints last year,” stated the trustees.