On Saturday, dozens of nun and priests came forward to protest against a rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal outside the Kerala High Court and demanded his immediate arrest.
Notably, nuns and priests of Kuravilangad convent staged a massive protest outside the Kerala High Court against the delay in the arrest of rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal. The protestors demanded immediate arrest of Franco Mulakkal claiming that both the state government and the diocese are shielding him.
This comes nearly a month after the Kerala police interrogated Bishop Franco Mulakkal in a rape case of a 44-year-old Catholic nun. In June this year, a 44-year-old nun staying in a convent in Kerala’s Kuruvilangad had made a police complaint claiming that Bishop Mulakkal had physically assaulted her. According to the complaint of nun, Franco Mulakkal, who is a Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar raped her at a guest house in Kuravilangad in May 2014 and later sexually exploited her 14 times.
Nun, who belong to an institution that functions under the Jalandhar diocese lodged a complaint before the Kottayam district police chief Harisankar. According to the nun, she had earlier complained about the incident to the Church authorities but no action was taken. However, she was forced to move a police complaint after the Church took no action on her complaint.
On the other side, Bishop Mulakkal has also filed a complaint against the nun in Kottayam police station in front of SP alleging that she was blackmailing him after he initiated disciplinary action against her, including transferring her from the present institution.
A month later complaint was registered, Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar Diocese tried to buy a silence of a 44-year-old Catholic nun who charged him of rape by paying her Rs 5 crores. An audio clip of the same has been released in public domain.
The audio clip revealed a Kerala priest mediating with the victim’s companion, who is also a nun, on the bishop’s behalf. The priest could be heard trying to convince the nun to ask her friend to withdraw the police complaint against Bishop Mulakkal and also promising the victim property and a better ‘posting’ in the diocese in return. He further offered a sum of Rs 5 crore.
Courtesy: NewsBharati
