A senior Catholic nun who has accused Latin Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Jalandhar Diocese of raping her several times or her family may approach the Kerala High Court on Monday in the context of the police’s alleged reluctance to arrest him even as more nuns of the diocese have reportedly told the investigators about the bad experiences they have had from the prelate who, they said, used to embrace them forcibly.
A nun of the same diocese, who has already abandoned her religious habit after being fed up with the bishop’s allegedly perverse behaviour, is said to have told the police team probing the rape charge against him that he used to touch the nuns, members of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation that came under his control, in immoral manner and embrace them forcibly.
As per reports, a minimum of 18 nuns had given up their service in the congregation due to the bad experiences they had had from the Bishop, especially during a Church programme he himself had implemented, ‘A Day with the Shepherd’, which necessitated the nuns to spend whole days with him.
It is said that the Bishop used to call the nuns to his room even after evening in the name of prayer sessions held as part of the programme which was launched in the diocese in 2014 but only one nun would be allowed at a time. The programme had triggered widespread protests from within the congregation and even several priests in the diocese had come out against it.
One of the nuns who have abandoned their religious habit has reportedly told the police that she had faced bad behaviour from the part of the Bishop during such prayer sessions. Even the Mother General of the congregation had admitted to the police that the programme, A Day with the Shepherd, had to be suspended after a couple of sessions due to objections.
In her complaint to the police, the senior nun, now 47, had said Bishop Franco Mulakkal (54) had raped her at a guest house attached to St Francis Mission Home, her convent at Kuravilangad in Kottayam district, 13 times in two years. He had raped her first on May 5, 2014 when he had visited Kerala for taking part in a Church programme in Thrissur, she had said.
Meanwhile, the rape victim or her family is likely to file a petition in the High Court on Monday against the alleged reluctance of the Kerala Police to arrest the Bishop, who hails from a Syro-Malabar Catholic family in Thrissur, despite the fact they have collected ample evidences and witness statements against him.
There were rumours that the nun herself might hold a Press conference on Sunday to disclose details of her allegations in a bid to mount pressure on the police. The victim’s family is convinced that the probe team headed by DySP K Subhash wants to arrest the Bishop at the earliest but the action is being delayed due to pressure from their superiors and political bosses.
“The police have collected strong evidences and sufficient witness statements against the Bishop but they are not arresting him. Nothing will happen as far as the present police chief – DGP Loknath Behera – remains in that position. In this situation, the only way before us seems to be to approach the court,” said a brother of the victim.
Pointing out that the probe in the case had started 72 days ago, the family said the police had already recorded the statement of the nun six times while the only action taken in the case of the accused was that the probe team had recorded his statement once and that too in a “very generous manner” at his diocesan headquarters in Jalandhar.
The family thinks that the police, who have already come across a nearly two dozen contradictions in the statement given by the accused, have been “questioning” the victim again and again with the intention of finding contradictions in her statements that could be interpreted in the Bishop’s favour so that his arrest can be avoided or delayed further.
The charge against the Bishop, the disrepute and shame it has brought to the Catholic Church and the police’s alleged reluctance to arrest the accused have sowed unhappiness among a large section of the Catholic laity in Kerala. Catholic organizations in Kochi have been preparing to stage protests against the Bishop and the police in the coming days.