Rape charge: Kerala Police to quiz bishop in Jalandhar
I am ready to face any probe. She filed the complaint only after I took action against her. It is nothing but personal vendetta.
FRANK MULLAKKAL, bishop
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Police will send a team to Jalandhar to question bishop Frank Mullakkal even as the 43-yearold nun reiterated her charge that she was sexually assaulted by him over two years.
In a related incident, an activist has filed a complaint against Cardinal of Syro-Malabar Church Mar George Alancherry on Saturday saying though the nun had complained to him about the incident six months ago, he failed to inform the police and allegedly tried to hush up the case.
Police had registered a case against the bishop on Friday following a complaint filed by the nun and Vaikkom deputy superintendent of police K Subhash took her statement.
The nun said she will go ahead with the legal action. Now, police will move a petition in a court to record her statement before a magistrate.
The nun reportedly told the investigating officer during the five-hour interaction that she informed the Cardinal about the incident but he failed to take any action forcing her to file a police complaint.
She also filed another complaint that there was a move to portray her in bad light through the social media.
The bishop had also given a police complaint against the nun, a mother superior of the convent, saying that she was blackmailing him and threatened to implicate him in a sexual harassment case.
In her complaint, the nun alleged that the bishop sexually abused after summoning her on the pretext of discussing an important issue in 2014.
She alleged that in next two years, she was raped 13 times by him.
The nun said she made a complaint to the church in December last year and forced to file a police complaint after it failed to take action against the bishop.
She said after filing a complaint she was removed from the official position and framed complaints of financial irregularities against her. There were also a move to brand her mentally sick, she said.
However, the bishop said he was implicated for taking action against her. Bishop Mullakkal, hailing from Kottayam, was appointed as the auxiliary bishop of Delhi diocese in 2009 and made the Bishop of Jalandhar in 2013.
“I am ready to face any probe. She filed the complaint only after I took action against her. It is nothing but personal vendetta,” the Bishop told a news channel while denying her charges.
The case surfaced at a time when a believer of the Orthodox Church filed a complaint against five priests alleging that they sexually exploited his wife for many years on the basis of a confession she made to one of them.
The police had registered a case after the intervention of the National Women Commission.