Police have filed charges of fraud against the treasurer of the Church of North India, accusing Mr. Prem Mashih of participating in a conspiracy to sell church lands for personal profit.

Police have filed charges of fraud against the treasurer of the Church of North India, accusing Mr. Prem Mashih of participating in a conspiracy to sell church lands for personal profit. Charged with Mr. Mashih in the fraud are the former bishops in Bombay, Pune and Gujarat. In 2008 lay members of Diocese of Bombay filed a complaint with police alleging certain church leaders had created a bogus trust to transfer ownership of the Afghan Memorial Church – a former Church of Scotland church built to honour the dead of the First Afghan War – into private hands. A 2009 investigation by Maharashtra State law and judiciary department found that a “bogus” corporation entitled the Bombay Diocesan Trust Association Private Limited had been created to “grab the properties of genuine Christian trusts” with similar names in the Diocese of Bombay. In May 2014 the Bombay High Court directed the police to complaint their investigations and the matter has been set down for a hearing on 28 July 2014.