CNI – a victim of land scam in Mumbai?

The Churchof North India (CNI), one of the biggest landowners in Mumbai, may well become the victim of a land scam with many parishioners claming that the the trust set up by the church is misappropriating property worth crores of rupees.

Afghan Church in Colaba owns land of 109,000 sq ft, All Saints church in Malabar Hill owns 27,000 sq ft and St Peter's church in Mazgaon owns 120,000 sq ft – all bearing the promise of thousands of square feet of attached land.

The temptation is big enough to have caused a rift within the Bombay Diocesan Trust Association (BDTA), which is in charge of all property belonging to the Church in Mumbai, CNN–IBN has reported.

According to sources close to the development, the BDTA is now split in four factions and all groups are claiming ownership to the BDTA name.

In fact, top priests have started taking sides of the various factions, CNN–IBN has reported, as the battle for gaining control of the trust – and a real estate goldmine – has heated up.

While the BDTA has asserted that the redevelopment of these prime properties is needed to maintain the churches, parishioners beg to disagree.

"We have got lot of money coming in form of donations, foreign funds. All churches are being maintained by that particular trust. They are paying money to maintain these churches. But our bishops, trustees are making false statements in front of charity commissioner and government that we are doing this because there is no money to maintain the churches," All India Legal Committee president Sandeep Gaikwad said.

The BDTA is in control of 60 churches across western India along with 13 schools and hostels, which gives it significant clout in the respective areas.

But this clout is at times being misused by the trustees, an investigation by the Mumbai police has revealed.

In an affidavit before the Bombay High Court the police have stated that [1] Trust property worth crore has been misappropriated and the money realized has not been spent in line with the objectives of the trust [2] Allotment of flats under the redevelopment scheme has been done to outsiders instead of beneficiaries [3] Provident fund of the teachers has been withheld to the tune of Rs. 7.24 lakh, while, trustees have spent Rs. 7.29 lakh for its board meetings from 1999–2003 [4] Over Rs. 92 lakh have been spent as legal fees to settle trustee disputes [5] And nearly Rs. 1 crore was spent in legal fees just to resolve petty differences between BDTA and its various factions

BDTA has, however, refuted all the charges and has insisted that parishioners should stick to their prayers.

"We have not stopped anyone from worshipping in the church. If they are trying to take over and usurp our authority and dabble in church property then it's their mistake," BDTA secretary P.B. Amolik said.

The battle continues. And, irrespective of which faction of BDTA emerges the winner, the loser may turn out to be CNI.