Indian Bishop Tells Harrowing Story of Being Kidnapped & Extorted for Money

“They hit me and punched me,” Bishop Prasad Gallela of Cuddapah, India told ucanews, “resulting in injuries all over my body. I did not resist.”

Bishop Gallela was traveling home after celebrating Mass on April 25th when a group of unidentified men attacked him. They blind-folded him, handcuffed him, and took him to an “undisclosed location.”

Claiming to be the police, they demanded that he give them 5 million rupees (about $75,000). He refused, and they released him the next morning – about 50 miles away from his diocese.

Bishop Gallela’s archbishop, Thumma Bala of Hyderabad, condemned the violence. “It is unbelievable that such a violent atrocity is perpetrated on a high ranking religious leader of a minority community, who is totally dedicated to the service of the needy and marginalized.”

Bishop Gallela said that police were already investigating the crime.

Pray for the persecuted Church in India!