Protests have intensified in Kerala over the alleged reluctance of the police for taking decisive action in the case pertaining to the rape of a senior Catholic nun allegedly by Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Jalandhar latin Catholic Diocese even as the diocesan authorities rejected as lie reports that Rs 5 crore and a top position in her congregation had been offered to the nun for not pursuing the case against him.

A whole month has passed since the nun lodged her complaint against the Bishop with the police but the investigators reportedly have not even drawn up a schedule so far for visiting Jalandhar for questioning him or to call him to Kerala for the purpose despite the fact that they have already collected enough evidences and statements. Allegations have come up to the effect that the Kerala Police team probing the case is delaying concrete and decisive action due to instructions from the higher-ups in order to give the Bishop and his well-wishers sufficient time for somehow forcing the nun and her supporters to come to a settlement and drop the case against him.

“The police have already got enough evidences and statements. Have we heard, especially after the Nirbhaya incident, of such delay in police procedures in a rape caseIJ This delay generates doubts. We can’t fault anyone who feels that this delay may lead to the derailing of the case itself,” said an influential laity member of the Catholic Church in Kochi.

Clamour for the Bishop’s arrest also has strengthened in this context. Shaiju Antony, an office-bearer of the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency (AMT) in the Church, told the media, “What is needed now is the Bishop’s arrest: Nothing less than that. Any further delay in that would bring further disrepute to the Church.” The police team is said to have got enough material supporting the nun’s case like the medical report which confirmed that she had been violated, the statement she had willingly recorded before a Magistrate and documental evidences and statements confirming that the Bishop had visited the place – where she said he had raped her – on the days she had cited.

Apart from that, the police are also in possession of copies of the complaints the nun had given to her parish priest, Bishop of Pala, Major Archbishop Cardinal Mar George Alencherry of the Syro-Malabar Church, the Apostolic Nuncio of The Vatican in India and the authority handling such issues in The Vatican, it is pointed out.

“What else do the police want to at least question the Bishop ion Jalandhar or to call him to Kerala for thatIJ As per reports, the Jalandhar Police has already said that the Kerala officials have not contacted them in connection with the case. It shows that things are not proceeding properly and in the right direction,” said a Kochi-based woman member of the laity.

According to the nun’s complaint to the police and her statement before a Magistrate, the Bishop had raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. She had said that the prelate had first raped her at a guest house attached to her convent in Kuravilangad in Kottayam district on May 5, 2014 when he stayed there during his Kerala visit for attending a Church function.

A brother of the victim, himself a priest serving under the Jalandhar Diocese, told a TV channel that the Bishop could be using every resource under his command to derail the case. He also said that it was mysterious that no political party or leader in Kerala, except former chief minister VS Achuthanandan, had so far shown any concern over the case. Meanwhile, Jalandhar Diocese’s public relations officer Fr Peter Kavumpuram, known as a staunch supporter of Bishop Mulakkal, has issued a statement denying reports that the Bishop had offered Rs 5 crore and a position of her choice in her congregation to the nun if she and her family were ready to stop pursuing the case.

He alleged that the nun had telephoned even the Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church with the intention of blackmailing to create evidences to support her case. “It seems that some people have come out with some new tactics after the blackmailing tactics failed,” Fr Kavumpuram said in reference to reports on offer of money and position to the nun.