The arrest of latin Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar Diocese, accused of raping a senior nun several times, seems to have become unavoidable with the collapse of his sole defence that the case against him was a trap set by the nun for taking action against her on a woman’s complaint that the nun had an immoral relationship with her husband with the woman making it clear that she had made the complaint due to some misunderstanding.
The woman, a relative of the rape victim, reportedly told the Kerala Police team probing the case in Delhi where she is presently living with her husband that she had lodged the complaint with the Mother General of the nun’s Missionaries of Jesus congregation because of some problems between her family and that of the nun, personal issues and misunderstanding.
During the recording of her statement that reportedly lasted several hours since late Friday night, the woman made it clear to the probe team that she came to know later that there was no such relationship between her husband and the nun and that she did not pursue her complaint for the same reason. The woman’s husband also told the police that there was no substance in her complaint. She had petitioned the Mother General on November 13, 2016 against the nun and had given a copy of the complaint to the authorities of the Jalandhar Diocese which controlled the congregation. Bishop Mulakkal had made this complaint his main defence against the rape charge.
As per Delhi reports quoting Kerala Police sources, the probe team headed by K Subhash, Deputy Superintendent of Police of Vaikom in Kerala’s Kottayam district had arrived at the conclusion that there was no substance in the woman’s complaint. Sources said the woman’s statement t the police had in no way questioned the credibility of the victim.
The woman had lodged her complaint with the Church authorities saying that the nun’s alleged relationship with her husband had been causing problems in her family life at a time when her family and that of the nun were not in good terms. Some priests of the Jalandhar Diocese had said earlier that certain individuals had tried to take advantage of the situation.
According to the nun, Bishop Mulakkal, a highly influential prelate hailing from a Syro-Malabar Catholic family in Thrissur district, had raped her 13 times in two years at a guest house attached to her convent in Kuravilangad in Kottayam. She said he had raped her first on May 5, 2014 when he had come to Kerala from Jalandhar to attend a Church programme.
The Bishop, however, built his defence mostly on the woman’s complaint against the nun saying that the latter used to threaten to trap him in a sex scandal as an act of revenge for taking against her on the basis of the complaint from the woman. He also claimed that the nun’s brother had even threatened to kill him following this, which also has reportedly been proved untrue.
Though the Bishop had made the woman’s complaint his defence against the nun’s rape charge against him, the diocese had not carried out any inquiry into it. When the report of the medical examination of the nun confirmed violation, the Bishop had taken a position that it was justification for what the woman had alleged in her complaint. With the woman making her stand on her own complaint clear, the police, who have been accused of delaying the Bishop’s questioning and arrest for giving him time to settle the case, will be left with no option but to move against him. In this context, the probe team is expected to go to Jalandhar to question the prelate at the earliest.
Sources in Kerala’s Catholic clergy said The Vatican might suspend the Bishop if his arrest became certain. The best option for the Bishop in such circumstances would be to voluntarily give up his position, they said. “I don’t think the Church can afford to allow him wear Bishop’s attire at the time of his arrest — if it comes to that,” said a senior Catholic priest from Kochi.
“If reports are true, the police have confirmed that the Bishop had reached the nun’s convent on the days she had cited. There are many witness statements against him. The medical report has confirmed the nun’s sexual violation. There are many other circumstantial evidences. What more do the police wan to make an arrest in such a caseij” asked a senior lawyer of Kerala High Court.