London: The investigation into the mysterious death of a Malayali priest in Edinburgh remains incomplete as the police struggle to locate the victim’s mobile phone. Detectives in the Scottish city have informed the priest’s colleague that they might not be able to release the body until after a week.
Fr Martin Xavier Vazhachira, 33, was found dead on a beach near Edinburgh on June 23, three days after he was last seen by his parishioners. His phone was still ringing in the three days, but the police could not find the device on the body. The phone was neither on the beach nor inside the priest’s room.
The CID officers who investigate the case need to address this gap when they submit their report to the fiscal officer, who has to take a call on releasing the body to relatives. The whole process may take at least a week, detectives have told Fr Tebin Francis Puthanpurakkal, who has been liaising with the authorities in Edinburgh on behalf of the Kerala-based CMI congregation.
The detectives said they were collecting the details of the calls made through Fr Xavier’s phone in his last days. The police have already examined the priest’s laptop, but they have not come across any leads.
Fr Xavier’s congregation and family were expecting to receive his body this week as the postmortem and pathology tests were already complete. The Indian consulate in Edinburgh and the Edinburgh diocese are coordinating with the local authorities to speed up the proceedings.
Edinburgh archbishop Dr Leo William Cushley will lead a special memorial service for Fr Xavier at the St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral on Thursday evening.
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