FORMER BISHOP REMANDED IN JAIL TILL OCT 6

Franco Mulakkal, the former Jalandhar bishop of Jalandhar arrested on charges of raping a nun, was sent to prison on Monday after the Kerala High Court deferred his bail application to Thursday. Mulakkal was arrested last week after being questioned by the police for three days.

Earlier in the day, a Kottayam court remanded the former bishop in jail till October 6. He was produced in the court of judicial first class magistrate after his two-day police remand ended. He was sent to Pala sub jail.

In June, the 43-year-old nun had complained to the police that Mulakkal had raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. The nun is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation based in Punjab, which also runs three convents in Kerala.

Mulakkal has been accused of wrongful confinement, rape, unnatural offence and criminal intimidation. Prosecutors say the police have, so far, taken statements of 81 witnesses in the case.

Mulakkal had earlier approached the high court for protection against arrest but the court declined to either direct the police to arrest him as demanded by some petitioners or grant him anticipatory bail.

The police initially told the high court that it hadn’t made up its mind on arresting him since there were contradictions in statements of many witnesses. It, however, appears to have changed its mind after questioning him for three days last week.

“The investigating officer has a reached a reasonable conclusion that there is evidence in this case and we have arrested him,” said Kottayam district police chief S Hari Shankar told media.

Meanwhile the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) has called for an impartial inquiry into the case.

It also criticised the protests by the nuns saying it invited ignominy to church.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: