Six priests and four laymen now charged in the murder of seminary rector in Bangalore, India

Four more priests have been charged with the murder in 2013 of a seminary rector in Bangalore, in southern India.

Ten people, including six priests, have now been accused of being involved in the death of Father K J Thomas, whose body was found inside St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary Institute (pictured), in Bangalore, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka.

Fr Elias Daniel and Fr William Patrick, along with a layman only named as Peter — were arrested in June 2014.

Now police have filed additional charges in a Bangalore court naming seven people including Fr I Anthappa, Fr A Thomas, Fr Anbu John and Fr Chowrappa Selvaraj along with three lay people

Deputy Commissioner of Police in Bangalore, Victor D'Souza, who is coordinating the investigation told UCANews.com: "The court will issue nonbailable warrants and they will be arrested soon. But that's the court’s decision. We do not know when."

According to the police investigation, Father Thomas was killed because of an ethnic rivalry between the Kannada-speaking minority and Tamil-speaking migrant majority.

D'Souza told UCANews.com that the police "have a fool-proof case" but declined to elaborate, saying the case was "quite complicated".

To date none of the accused priests have been defrocked and are still free to celebrate Mass.

Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore told UCANews.com that he "knows nothing" about the progress of the case.

Additional reporting by UCANews.com