The 'mafia' is controlling the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church in Kerala, claims a bishop who has been suspended for alleged financial irregularities.

The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church is a non-Catholic Christian group that traces its origins to St. Thomas the Apostle, believed to have evangelized the Kerala coast in 52 AD.

Bishop Kuriakose Cleemis of Idukki (not the Catholic diocese of the same name), the Church’s youngest prelate, courted controversy after he told a television channel Monday that he paid a bribe of 30 million  rupees (US$526,539) to become bishop and that the Church had deputed men to kill him.

“The Catholicos [the head of the Jacobite Church] is fully controlled by the coterie,” Cleemis said. “They have mafia links.”

He alleged he paid the bribe to Catholicos Baselios Thomas I, the head of the Church.

“I wanted transparency in public life which many Church leaders did not want,” Cleemis said.

Denying the accusations, Church Synod Secretary Bishop Joseph Gregorios said Bishop Cleemis’ statements were irresponsible and confused the faithful.

“We have suspended him and constituted a seven-member committee to look into the allegations,” he said yesterday.

The prelate said action against the bishop, which was taken Tuesday, occurred after he had incurred huge financial liabilities for the Church.

Bishop Cleemis said that since becoming bishop in 2008, he has spent 30 million rupees for the development of Jacobite church's Idukki diocese.

Bishop Cleemis’ allegations were endorsed by former Bishop Yuhanon Philoxenos of Malabar.