Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. (File photo)The National Commission of Women (NCW) Wednesday wrote to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan requesting him to take prompt action to prevent any attempt to sabotage material evidence and to ensure the safety of the complainants and the protesting nuns against rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, ANI reported.
The letter, written by NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma, said that the complainants have alleged that the transfer orders were issued to pressurise and threaten them as they are prominent witnesses in the case.
National Commission for Women letter to Pinarayi Vijayan. (ANI)It further said that the transfer order could also be seen as an attempt to sabotage material evidence and that the lives of the complainant and the protesting nuns could be in danger if they are transferred to distant regions.
The four nuns – Sr Alphy Pallasseril, Sr Anupama Kelamangalathuveliyil, Sr Josephine Villoonnickal, and Sr Ancitta Urumbil – had protested against the Bishop and were to be transferred out from the Kuravilangad convent by the Catholic Church of Kerala in January this year.
The nuns too had written a letter to the CM, earlier this year, requesting him to intervene in the matter and allow them to live in the present Missionaries of Jesus convent in Kuravilang.
Mulakkal was accused of raping a nun belonging to the order of Missionaries of Jesus several times between 2014 and 2016, and spent three weeks in the sub-jail at Pala before he got bail.
