Rape-accused and former bishop and head of Latin Catholic diocese of Jalandhar, Franco Mulakkal, is back in the news again over another alleged sexual assault against another Kerala nun of the same diocese. Currently, Monsignor Franco Mulakkal is out on bail in a case of sexually assaulting a nun between 2014 and 2016.
According to a police statement that has now come out in the open, the 34-year-old nun – the 14th witness in the case – has alleged that Franco Mulakkal made sexually coloured remarks on phone calls, messages and video calls and that she was inappropriately touched by him. The nun also states that she was scared of the Bishop and of being thrown out from the congregation.
As per the nun, they were in communication via phone calls, chat and video calls for a period of two years from 2015 to 2017.
In her witness statement in September 2018, she said that in 2017, the bishop visited the convent she was in and hugged and kissed her.
Police say that the witness was not ready to file a complaint against the bishop as she was scared of the bishop. They had alerted the police in the jurisdiction and when the team met her, she refused to file a complaint. Hence a separate case wasn’t registered against Bishop Franco and instead made her the 14th witness in the case.
This comes a day before Franco Mulakkal’s discharge petition was to be heard in the Court asking that his name be removed from the list of defendants. According to his lawyer, the reason for the request is that the accusations against the bishop were made by witnesses who are resentful towards him. The prelate is the chief accused in a trial that takes place at the Kottayam court, involving 83 witnesses in all, including Card. George Alencherry, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, three bishops, 11 priests and several nuns.
This 35-year-old nun, in her statement on September 19, 2018, had told the police, “I met Bishop Franco Mulakkal for the first time in 2015 in Bihar… I called the Bishop on phone several times for different needs of the convent… We started eventually speaking regularly. From 2015 to 2017 we made calls, we chatted on WhatsApp and made video calls. I initially started calling on behalf of a friend. But from 2015 end, Bishop started talking to be with sexual overtones. That made me feel disgusting, averse and cause mental agony.”
“But Bishop continued with sexual remarks…and started making video calls with description about his and my body parts… Because he was the Bishop of diocese, I could not tell anything against it. Even though I was not interested in sex chatting, due to fear of the Bishop’s displeasure and being ousted from the church, I did not object…” the statement adds.
“In 2017, I had a relationship with a person via phone. And that caused certain problems in the church. As punishment, I was sent to Kerala… On April 30, 2017, to investigate this matter, and to meet me, Bishop Franco Mulakkal came to this convent… around 1am in the night, Bishop called me to his room and made me sit in a chair in his room. He enquired about details regarding the Bihar incident and I explained that to him. Bishop and I spoke for nearly two hours. As I was leaving the room, Bishop hugged me and kissed me on the forehead. I felt disgusted. And next the Bishop left. After this, despite me calling him many times, he avoided talking saying he was busy. And I stopped calling him,” the nun’s statement reads.
The nun said that she did not reveal the matter to anyone owing to fear as Franco was highly influential.
“Since the place of occurrence of the crime was in Kannur, we had passed the information to Kannur police. Though Kannur district police chief had approached her for registering a case, she was not interested in prosecution,” Kollam rural police chief Hari Sankar said.
Meanwhile, police sources said some other witnesses in the rape case also had deposed before the investigation team about sexual misbehaviour of the bishop. “Since, all the incidents had happened in Jalandhar or outside Kerala, Kerala police had some limitation in taking up with the cases,” said sources.
In 2018, a Missionaries of Jesus’ nun had accused Franco of raping her multiple times at the Kuruvilangadu convent in Kottayam. The FIR in the case was registered in June 2018. Then after protests, Franco was arrested on September 21, 2018.
The chargesheet in the case was submitted in April 2019. In the chargesheet, Bishop Franco Mullakal has been charged under various sections of the IPC: 342 (wrongful confinement), 376 (2k) (rape on a woman incapable of giving consent), 376 (2n) (causing grievous bodily harm during rape), 376 (c) (a) 377 (unnatural offence) and 506 (1) (criminal intimidation). Mulakkal, who was arrested on September 21, 2018 on rape charges, got bail on October 16, 2018.
Save Our Sisters Forum, fighting for justice for the nun who has accused the Bishop of raping her several times between 2014-2016, has alleged police lapse in a separate case not being filed based on this witness nun’s statement. However, police sources claim that they did not file a separate case based on this nun’s revelations because she was unwilling to do so, and instead made her the 14th witness in the case.
Report collated from various sources