The Kerala Police team probing the sensational case pertaining to the rape of a senior nun allegedly by Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the latin Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar is planning to leave for the Punjab city by Wednesday in order to question him and arrest him if needed even as the Jalandhar City Police Commissioner told the media that the investigators had not so far contacted him in connection with the case.
The probe team headed by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Vaikom, Kottayam district will leave for Jalandhar once it completes the recording of statements of the senior clergy in Kerala, including Major Archbishop Cardinal Mar George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, with whom the nun had first lodged her complaint against Bishop Mulakkal.
According to the 48-year-old nun, Bishop Mulakkal had subjected her to sexual abuse using threats 13 times between 2014 and 2016. She had alleged that the Bishop had raped her first on May 5, 2014 at a guest house attached to her convent at Kuravilangad, Kottayam when he had stayed there during a visit to Kerala for attending a Church function in Thrissur district.
The nun had approached the police chief of Kottayam district last month after all her efforts to get justice from within the Church failed. She had petitioned the Vicar of Kuravilangad, the Bishop of Pala, Cardinal Alencherry and even The Vatican about the persecution she had allegedly suffered in the hands of Bishop Mulakkal but none of them acted on her complaint, she said.
On Saturday, Pala Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt confirmed to the investigators that the nun had indeed approached him with a complaint against the Jalandhar Bishop but she had given the complaint only orally and not in writing. He told the police that he was not competent to handle the matter and that she should approach the Cardinal.
The Pala Bishop’s statement has given added confidence to the investigators to question the Cardinal who has so far maintained that the nun had not lodged any complaint with him against the Jalandhar Bishop though she had reportedly handed over copies of the letters she had written to him as well as The Vatican and its envoy in India.
Cardinal Mar Alencherry, who is accused of involvement in a mega land scam in his Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, had said that the nun had indeed met him but claimed that she had spoken of certain problems in her convent, which came under the Jalandhar Diocese of the latin Catholic Church and not the Syro-Malabar Church of which he is the chief.
A complaint is pending with the Kochi Police seeking legal action against the Cardinal for not alerting the authorities even after getting a complaint on a serious offence like rape from a nun.
The investigators will be recording the Cardinal’s statement in the next few days and may leave for Jalandhar to question Bishop Mulakkal and arrest him if needed.