The Additional District and Sessions Court - I in Kottayam on Monday cancelled the bail granted to Franco Mulakkal, former bishop of the Catholic diocese of Jalandhar and an accused in the nun rape case, and issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him.
Sessions judge G. Gopakumar issued the arrest warrant citing that the accused had failed to appear before the court on multiple sittings since previous November.
The court, which declared the bail bond as forfeited, also directed the police to register a case against the guarantors. A show cause notice will be issued to the guarantors seeking to submit the reason for not confiscating the surety amount of ₹2 lakh.
Failure to appear
The bishop had last appeared before the court here on November 30, 2019 to secure an extension for his bail. When the case was considered on June 10 this year, the court issued a strict directive to the accused for appearing in person on July 1 as he had failed to appear for more than 10 occasions. The bishop, however, failed to turn up once again citing that his residence in Jalandhar was in a COVID -19 containment zone.
When the case was considered on Monday, counsel representing the accused submitted that the bishop could not appear as he had been directed to go in quarantine.
Prior to leaving for Kerala, he had met his advocate Mandeep Singh Sachdev to discuss the case. The lawyer, however, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 later and the bishop was accordingly directed to go in quarantine.
‘Misleading court’
However, special public prosecutor Jithesh Babu pointed out that the accused had misled the court on an earlier occasion as the Civil Line area in Jalandhar, where the Bishop House was situated, was not in a containment zone. Admitting the arguments of the prosecutor, the court directed that a non-bailable warrant be issued to the bishop through the District Police Chief, Kottayam, and posted the case for August 13. On March 16, the court had dismissed a discharge petition filed by the accused and posted the case for commencing trial proceedings. Though, the court had posted the case on May 6 and May 19, it could not consider the case due to the lockdown.
After the hearing on charges and examination of the witnesses, the court will frame the charges against the accused.