Months after The Commune first exposed the Pannur land scandal, The Catholic Minority Welfare Society (CMWS), a registered organisation that protects the rights of the Catholic minority community in Tamil Nadu, has issued a media statement and filed formal complaint letters with three authorities: Fr. Don Bosco (current Provincial, Salesian Chennai Province), the Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore, and the Apostolic Nuncio to India. Each has been given seven days to respond.
What The Commune Previously Reported
As this publication first reported, a family donated a prime tract of land in Pannur, Tiruvallur District in 2013, to the Salesian Chennai Province, for the sole purpose of building an Engineering College for rural youth. On 24 July 2013, the then-Provincial Fr. Jayapalan Raphael gave the family a signed and sealed certification confirming this purpose. A public foundation stone laying ceremony was held on 13 August 2013.
Just 27 days after that written assurance, a document was allegedly executed in secret that stripped all donor conditions from the land, without the knowledge or consent of the family. Fr. Arokiya Doss signed a General Power of Attorney on the same day, transferring the property to a private builder, Mr. Antony. Between January and May 2014, the entire land was sold off in parts for Rs. 14 Crore. The documents were hidden from the family for over eleven years.
In October 2024, when the family finally discovered the truth, they were told they had no claim over their own donated property. A mediated settlement brokered by the Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore in 2022 in which the Province agreed to return equivalent land, was later abandoned without explanation.
The Problem At The Top
The CMWS statement draws particular attention to a fact that makes any internal review impossible: Fr. Don Bosco, named as allegedly involved in drafting the original secret document, is today the Provincial of the Salesian Chennai Province. Fr. Xavier Packia, also named, is the current Rector of Don Bosco Egmore.
In other words, the individuals at the centre of the allegations are today in the highest positions of authority within the very institution under scrutiny. CMWS is categorical: any enquiry conducted under their watch or influence cannot be credible. It must be fully independent of current Chennai Province leadership.
The Demand To Rome
CMWS is calling on the Rector Major of the Salesian Order in Rome to order an immediate and fully independent Congregational Enquiry. The enquiry must answer four specific questions:
1. Who authorised the removal of donor conditions from the Pannur land,
2. Who directed the subsequent sale of the property,
3. Where the Rs. 14 Crore in proceeds went,
4. Why the 2022 mediated settlement agreed under the Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore was abandoned.
The surviving members of the donor family are now in their 60s and 80s. They gave their land for the poor. They have waited over eleven years. CMWS says that wait is over.
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