Website of Vasai, Virar

In a shocking incident,  a retired priest of Roman Catholic Church of Vasai diocese, Fr Peter J Bombacha (74), was found to have been brutally murdered on Thursday April 29 at his 'Nirashritashramata ashram’ at Babola Naka, Sandoor Road, Vasai. Interestingly, the place is located a few furlongs away from the Bishops house of Vasai.

Fr Bombacha, a simple priest with very poor and down to earth life style, and simple food habits, used to attract lot of people from this locality and outside. The people, irrespective of their caste and religious affiliations, used to come to him in large numbers to find solace and succour. According to the local people, he used to spend his whole day in penance, fasting and prayers.

As the priest also used to hold prayers for the sick, lots of sick people came to him to get relief from their ailments. He used to conduct masses regularly in the morning and prayers in the evening, which were attended by hundreds of people. He also used to dispense medicines for minor ailments on Sundays from 10 am to 5 pm. On last Saturday of each month, he used to organize a special healing session inspired by the Holy Spirit, for which people used to flock the ashram from all directions.

According to Archbishop Felix Anthony Machado, the Bishop of Vasai, Fr Peter, who was born in 1936, was a very faithful priest, whose motto was to serve the people to his fullest capacity. In serving the poor and the suffering people, he forgot even to fulfill his basic needs. He had served in various parishes in the undivided Bombay diocese. Some of them are Sandor, Mudh, Karodi and Dahisar. He was a well-accepted priest and had a great love for the poor, sick and the downtrodden.

After retirement in the year 2000, Fr Bombacha built an ashram, a small structure of bamboos, in Babola Naka, Vasai (a place close to the Bishops House), and started serving the people from there. He had named the ashram, 'Nirashritashramata' (mother of forsaken who gives shelter) and used to conduct regular prayers. He also had started an Alcoholics Anonymous clinic at the ashram. More than helping the people to heal their physical and mental ailments through medicines and prayers, he used to encourage them to pray to 'Our Lady of Forsaken' to get healed from their sins and other ailments.

Some people are not prepared to buy the story that the murder was committed for gain by the robbers, as the retired priest was living a very poor life and the robbers surely would not have been able to find any valuables with him. Different stories are in circulation about the motive of murder, including the one about the priest’s ongoing tussle with a builder, who wanted to acquire land near his ashram, which the priest resisted. Some suspect that religious fanaticism would have been behind the murder. Hence, the actual motive behind this murder will come out only through proper investigation.

Fr Peter J Bombacha used to live in the ashram with his cooks. In the recent past, the work of construction of a new, two-storied structure began at this place. The construction work is still in progress. Fr Peter used to stay in the first floor and the chapel is located in the ground floor. A few days ago, he had sent his cooks to their native places for holidays. The murder came to light only on the morning of Thursday, when the people visited the ashram for the morning mass. Normally, as and when the people came to his place, he followed the practice of tossing the keys from his first floor residence, and the people used to open the chapel to prepare for the mass at 5.30 am. However as Fr Bambacha did not respond on the Thursday morning the visitors went away. But at around 6 am, a lady doctor residing in the area decided to check on him. She went up and found that his grilled door of the flat was still closed. At the same time, she could see the body lying on the floor. Then she alerted the locals and the police were informed.

When the police came and entered in, they saw the body lying on the floor with a pair of scissors sticking out from his mouth. A rope was found tightened around his neck and there were four-stab injuries on his body. The pastor was dressed in pajamas, which were pulled till his knees, while his undergarment was found in another room, the policemen said. A total of 13 wounds were found on his body. The body was found in the lobby leading to the bedroom.

The body was sent for post mortem in Navghar Primary Health Centre (PHC). Finger print experts visited the spot and collected samples. The police have registered a case of murder and are conducting inquiries in the matter. The investigations have begun under the leadership of a senior police inspector named Rajendra Naik of Vasai police station, and the deputy superintendent of police, Deepak Deoraj of Thane rural station, both of whom hope to nab the culprits within the next 48 hours.

After post-mortem, the body of the slain priest was brought to his ashram in the evening.
Then the body was taken in procession to his house in Koliwada under the jurisdiction of St Peters Church. Within a short span the news of murder spread in the entire Vasai region like wild fire, and the people flocked the place in thousands. Managing the crowd became a formidable task.

The funeral mass was concelebrated by Archbishop Felix Anthony Machado of Vasai, Bishop Percival Ferandes of the archdiocese of Mumbai and Msgr Francis Correa, chancellor of Vasai diocese at 7 pm at St Peters Church, Koliwada. Parish priest, Fr Solomon Rodrigues, Fr Valentine Pawkar, parish priest of Gonsalo Garcia church, under the jurisdiction of which the ashram is located, and several other dignitaries were present. Even during the mass, the people were seen rushing to have a last look at the murdered priest and to pay their respects.