Priests of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Syro Malabar Church, who claimed that they were brutalised by the police while they were being evicted last week from the premises of the Archbishop’s House in the city, said they would approach the State Human Rights Commission directly against the police action.

Athiroopatha Samrakshana Samithi, the forum of priests opposed to the Syro-Malabar Church synod diktat on unified Mass, said in a statement here on Thursday that the complaint would be submitted before the Commission on Friday.

The forum said the police officer involved in dealing highhandedly with them should also be taken to task.

The statement claimed that a large posse of police personnel went to the premises of the Archbishop’s House around 5 a.m. and asked the priests inside to leave the premises. The forum claimed that they were verbally abused by the police, who tried to remove them by force. The priests were then dragged out of the compound into the St. Mary’s Basilica compound around 150 metres from the Archbishop’s House, the statement alleged.

The priests said they had been celebrating full people-facing Mass over the past 60 years and had now been asked to change the way the Mass was conducted. The priests were protesting against, what they called, the unilateral decision to change the way the Mass was celebrated.

Violence was unleashed on the priests, who were engaged in a peaceful prayer in the early hours of January 11, and action should be taken against those responsible for the police action, the forum said.