The noose of law seems to be tightening for Keralite Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the latin Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, who is accused of raping a senior nun many times with the nun standing firm in her charge against him amidst criticisms that the Kerala Police are deliberately delaying the arrest of the prelate.
The 44-year-old nun, who has accused the Bishop of abusing her sexually at a guest house attached to her convent at Kuravilangad in Kottayam district between May, 2014 and 2016, reportedly repeated her charge in her statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC before the First Class Judicial Magistrate Court in Changanassery the other day.
According to indications from sources in the police and the nun’s family, she had repeated the statement she had given to the police earlier before the court also. This has pushed not just the Bishop but also the entire Catholic Church further into the defensive over the issue. The police’s investigating team has submitted an application in the court for a copy of her statement.
The nun who had served under the Jalandhar diocese earlier and her family are claiming that they have in their possession evidences – in the form of voice records of the Bishop’s conversations with her, his messages, etc – to establish the crime of the Bishop. The nun is expected to hand over the evidences to the police team probing the case.
The police, facing the allegation of delaying the Bishop’s arrest, are reportedly convinced that arrest cannot be avoided because the case against the Bishop is strong with respect to the situation and evidences. It is said that the police officials probing the case have received instructions “from above” to consider “all sides” before moving in to arrest the Bishop.
The investigators are likely to travel to Jalandhar to question the Bishop which may lead to his arrest or to summon him to Kerala on the basis of what the nun had said in her statement before the court. The police’s move is to seek legal opinion before arresting the Bishop, against whom a case was registered on June 27 on the basis of a complaint from the nun.
“We are standing firm in our charge against the Bishop and we will hand over to the police all the evidences we have against him,” said the nun’s brother, against whom the Bishop has filed a complaint. “We trust the police. We are not worried about the delay in the arrest. It will take time as our fight is not against an ordinary person,” he said.
At the same time, Vicar Nicholas Manipparambil of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church’s Kodanad parish who had revealed to the media that the nun had in her possession solid evidences against the Bishop, is said to have been instructed by his Church’s head Major Archbishop Cardinal Mar George Alencherry not to speak to the media about the case.
Cardinal Alencherry is already facing the charge that he had refused to take any action in the issue though the nun had brought it to his notice as early as in August, 2017. When asked about this, he had claimed that he had not got any written complaint and that there was nothing he could do as the scandal had erupted not in his Church but in the latin Catholic Church.
According to the nun, the 54-year-old Bishop hailing from Syro-Malabar Catholic background had abused her sexually for the first time at the guest house adjacent to the convent in Kuravilangad on May 5, 2014 when he had arrived in Kerala from Jalandhar to take part in a programme.
Since then, he had sexually abused her 12 times, she said in the complaint. The nun had approached all relevant authorities of the Church including the parish Vicar and the Bishop of the concerned diocese. She had even lodged a complaint with The Vatican. She had approached the police after all her prayers for justice from the Church went unheeded.
However, the Jalandhar Diocese and Bishop Franco Mulakkal are arguing that the woman’s complaint is part of a pressure tactic for returning to the position of the Mother superior from which she was removed following a hitherto-unverified complaint from a woman that her husband had a secret relationship with the nun.