A day after the Save Our Sisters (SOS) Action Council announced its decision to expand its ongoing protest by five Catholic nuns at High Court Junction demanding justice for a nun allegedly raped by Jalandhar bishop Franco Mulakkal to the rest of the State from Monday, the Jalandhar-based Missionaries of Jesus (MJ) congregation has come out with its preliminary inquiry commission report in the case that effectively absolved the bishop of the charge while casting aspersions on the integrity of the victim and the nuns supporting her.
The report featuring six ‘findings’ dubbed the stir a conspiracy against the bishop. However, sister Anupama, one of the protesting nuns, gave a point-to-point rebuttal to the finding.
The report said the five nuns protesting in support of the victim had made an unauthorised return to the Kuravilangad convent after being transferred to other convents following an official transfer made by the Church. They had conspired with “four outsiders’’. However, Sister Anupama challenged the commission to reveal the identity of the outsiders.
The visitors’ diary at the Kuravilangad convent was maintained by an acquaintance of the victim and the entries were often made without being counter-signed by guests, the report alleged. The diary was manipulated as part of a preconceived plan to create evidence.
Sister Anupama said the visitors’ diary is updated every month and discrepancies, if any, could have already been detected. The diary is now with the police who can easily verify it.
The report accuses the nuns of having forcibly shifted the controlling system of CCTV cameras in the convent, supposed to be under the control of the mother superior, to their rooms. Sister Anupama said the CCTVs remain where they were before.
The commission’s report said the attendance of the victim along with the bishop in many events at her instance even during the two-year period between 2014 and 2016 when she was allegedly raped by the latter was evidence of the allegation being a conspiracy.
This was dismissed by Sister Anupama, who said that as someone holding the charge of the convent, she might have attended such functions taking permission from the mother superior.