Unmesh Gujarathi
Sprouts Exclusive

Father Vincent Pereira (56) under private house arrest at Nav Sadhana Diocesan Pastoral Centre by Pune Bishop Thomas Dabre within a Church complex next to Pune railway station was booked under POSCO on charges of sexually abusing a 13-year school boy. Soon after FIR was registered on September 30, he was absconding for nearly 22 days.

Surprisingly evading nearly half a dozen teams of crime branch police searching for him for 22 days, he obtained interim bail from the Pune District Sessions court despite being a habitual sex offender and alleged to have abused 3rd minor in his second POCSO case.

The police had earlier refused to register an FIR in this case. Overall, the role of first Investigation Officer Sushil Damre of Hadapsar Police Station and that of his bosses is doubtful. The FIR was finally registered only after the National Human Rights Commission in Delhi sent a notice.

However, the Hadapsar police ensured that the case would be weak by filing the same section (8) against all 3 accused when this section was applicable to only the main accused. Father Vincent Pereira succeeded in the court on the basis of weak prosecution and got the shocking interim bail with no notice to the victims or complainant and in total violation of natural justice for the minor victim.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Sprouts has reliably learnt that the sex-starved Pereira is of a wicked mind and the offence registered at Hadapsar police station is the second offence against him involving the third minor victim.

The accused Pereira used to indulge in unnatural sex when working as a Principal of St. Patrick’s High School, Pune. While in school he sexually abused three boys by showing them obscene videos. When the parents reprimanded him, he threatened them. Finally, an offence was registered against him in 2018 for abusing two minor students

He was in Yerwada Jail for nearly one and a half years. During that period he was denied bail twice by the Pune District Sessions Court. Then he moved the Bombay High Court which granted him bail.

After his release, Pune Bishop Thomas Dabre made arrangements for his accommodation at Nav Sadhana Diocesan Pastoral Centre in Pune. While residing at the Centre, he visited the home of the parents of a 13-year-old boy who had helped him during his first case and abused him sexually at his home in Hadapsar.

Earlier he was the Principal of St. Joseph’s High School in Khadki, Pune where he was reported to have abused a couple of boys. However, that matter was suppressed then.

Thereafter Pereira was transferred to a reputed convent school in Solapur. He worked at the school for some years as a Principal. He continued his nefarious activities and in one case abused even the security guard of the school. He threatened the guard that he would fail his two children (girls) studying in the same school in the annual examination and thus continued to sexually exploit the guard.

The SIT of Sprouts has exposed a series of stories related to the sexually wicked activities of Pereira. In spite of this and two FIRs in respect of abuse of three minors, he is still scot-free to perhaps hunt for his next minor victim.