COPS QUIZ JALANDHAR BISHOP

PROBE Seize mobile, laptop, a register for keeping records of letters

JALANDHAR : A six-member team of the Kerala Police questioned the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, Franco Mulakkal, for nearly nine hours in connection with a nun’s complaint that he sexually abused her 13 times between 2014 and 2016.

The complainant has alleged that she was assaulted by Mulakkal (54) at different locations, including Jalandhar and Kottayam.

The team led by Vaikom deputy superintendent of police (DSP) K Subhash had reached the bishop’s house on Monday afternoon to question Mulakkal reached there to join the investigation at 7.45pm.

The police team is in the city for the past four days.

The cops kept questioning him and recording his statement till 4:50am on Tuesday when they left. The team seized his laptop, mobile phone and a register for keeping records of letters.

“The bishop cooperated with us. We had prepared a 55-point questionnaire to record his statement. The investigation is on and we have not arrested him as yet,” said DSP Subhash.

The team left for Amritsar and returned to the city by evening.

Church officials handed over written statements of other nuns in favour of the bishop.

Church father Micheal Ani said the Kerala police did not give any prior notice to the bishop to join the investigation. “They questioned other staff members in the church on Monday afternoon,” Ani told the media.

The bishop’s counsel, Mandeep Sachdev, said that they have not applied for an anticipatory bail.

The statements of five nuns and two fathers have been recorded so far. The four nuns questioned on Saturday were at the Missionaries of Jesus Congregation in Jalandhar, where the complainant was posted as ‘mother general’ till 2013.

Mulakkal, who was booked in Kottayam on June 29, has refuted the nun’s charges, saying she was targeting him for starting a probe against her for her involvement in an illicit relationship with a man.

The nun is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus Congregation based in Punjab which runs two convents in Kerala. She is working at one of the convents at Kuravilanagad in Kottayam.

COPS SAY THE BISHOP COOPERATED WITH THEM; CHURCH OFFICIALS HAND OVER STATEMENTS OF OTHER NUNS; NO ARREST YET