Mulakkal was accused of raping the nun on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2016.Nine months after Kerala Police booked Franco Mulakkal, a former bishop of Jalandhar Diocese, in a case of rape of a nun, the police’s Special Investigative Team (SIT) on Tuesday filed a chargesheet in Pala court in the state against 55-year-old.
Mulakkal was accused of raping the nun on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2016.
The chargesheet was filed after recording statements of 83 witnesses, including senior Church priests and sisters from Punjab and Kerala, SIT member and Kottayam DSP K Subhash told The Indian Express over phone.
He said charges have been framed under various IPC Sections, including 342 (wrongful confinement), 376C (sexual intercourse by person in authority), 377 (unnatural sex) and 506(1) (criminal threat).
A team led by DSP Subhash had come to Jalandhar in August 2018 and met several people from the Catholic Church to record their statement. In Jalandhar, the Kerala Police team had questioned Mulakkal for nine hours on August 14 last year.
Mulakkal was subsequently summoned to Kerala to join the investigations on September 19 last year. He had stepped down from his post before going to Kerala to join the probe.
In her complaint to the police in June last year, the victim had alleged that Mulakkal raped her at a guesthouse in Kuravilangad in May 2014, and later sexually exploited her on several occasions. She said she had to approach the police as the church authorities did not act on her repeated complaints against the clergyman.
Mulakkal has claimed that he was “absolutely innocent” and “falsely implicated” with “ulterior motive and vexatious intention”.
Five nuns, who led a public protest seeking Mulakkal’s arrest, welcomed the police’s decision to file charge sheet in the case and said they were satisfied with the investigation.
Anupama, one of the five nuns under Save Our Sisters (SOS), said they now hope that Mulakkal will get punishment as the first step towards justice. She said they had to struggle hard even to get the chargesheet filed in court.
“We met the Kottayam SP in March to file a complaint against the SIT for the delay in fling the chargesheet, following which the action was expedited,” she said.
Mulakkal was earlier arrested in the case following pressure from the people in Kerala and an indefinite protest by five nuns. Arrested on September 21, 2018, he underwent interrogation at the Crime Branch and spent over three weeks in Pala jail. He was granted conditional bail on October 15 last year on his third bail plea.
