A family with longstanding ties to the Salesian congregation has submitted a detailed complaint to the General Council of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Rome, alleging forgery, deception and prolonged breach of trust by the Chennai Salesian Province in connection with a property donated in 2013 for an educational project in Tamil Nadu.
In an open letter sent from Perth, Australia, members of the family, including two priests, claimed that a valuable parcel of DTCP-approved land in Tiruvallur district was given to the Salesian Province of Chennai for the specific purpose of establishing an engineering college at Don Bosco, Pannur, to benefit poor rural youth. According to the family, the donation was conditional and never intended to be an unconditional transfer of ownership.
The family stated that a formal certification dated 24 July 2013, issued by the then Provincial, recorded this specific purpose, and that a foundation stone for the proposed college was laid on 13 August 2013, in the presence of family members from India and abroad.
However, the family alleged that on 20 August 2013, a separate registered document was clandestinely prepared by then Salesian official Fr. Bosco, along with a builder, and that signatures were obtained from the family’s eldest sister and brother-in-law without disclosing the contents. The family claimed they were neither shown the draft nor given a copy of the document, which they allege omitted the original purpose of the donation and treated the land as an unconditional transfer. They said they became aware of this document only in October 2024, more than eleven years later.
According to the complaint, the builder subsequently sold the land to a third party and later became insolvent, stalling the proposed educational project. The family claimed that during the tenure of the then Provincial, a resolution was passed by the Provincial Council acknowledging that the donor’s intent had not been fulfilled and that the property should therefore be returned. They further stated that Fr. Bosco was a member of the council at the time.
The family alleged that despite repeated representations between 2017 and 2022, including interventions by the Archbishop of Madras–Mylapore, the issue remained unresolved. They said that in October 2022, the Province, through the Archbishop, offered three options for restitution, of which the family chose compensation in the form of equivalent land near the original property. According to them, no response was received thereafter.
The dispute escalated in September 2024 when, according to the family, Fr. Bosco, by then the Provincial, asserted that the family had no legal claim over the property, citing the 2013 registered document. The family has described this as an act of blackmail based on what they allege to be a forged and deceitfully obtained document.
In the letter, the family accused the Provincial of breaching both civil and moral obligations and claimed that the actions had destroyed their long-held plan to support education for disadvantaged youth in the spirit of Don Bosco. They said their parents had passed away without seeing the intended project realised and that the surviving siblings were now elderly.
The family stated that they had submitted copies of all relevant documents to Don Bosco Mondo e.V. in Germany, which in turn forwarded the matter to the General Economer of the Salesian Congregation in Rome in October 2024. They said they were informed that the issue had been taken up with senior officials of the congregation.
In their appeal, the family urged the Salesian leadership in Rome, as well as bishops and priests in Tamil Nadu, to intervene and ensure that the 2022 agreement conveyed through the Archbishop was honoured. They said they were seeking either the return of the property or equivalent compensation and stressed that they did not wish to pursue the matter with the builder.
In a separate open letter addressed directly to Fr. Bosco, the family reiterated their allegations of betrayal and misuse of trust and appealed for a resolution that would allow their original charitable intention to be fulfilled.
There has been no public response so far from Fr. Bosco or the Salesian Province of Chennai to the allegations contained in the letters.
The controversy has also acquired a political dimension, as reported earlier by The Commune, which revealed that Rome has begun an internal probe after a Don Bosco alumnus accused the Chennai Provincial of political collusion with the ruling DMK. According to the report, the complaint submitted to the Salesian leadership in Rome alleged that the Provincial’s proximity to DMK functionaries and participation in politically aligned events amounted to improper political engagement by a senior cleric, raising concerns of institutional compromise. The article stated that these allegations were formally taken cognisance of in Rome, prompting the Salesian General Council to initiate a preliminary examination into the matter, thereby bringing the issue of church–political entanglement under official scrutiny.
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