On Friday, Kerala Court acquitted Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Catholic Church in the nun rape case. The Additional Sessions Court, Kottayam, presided over by judge G Gopakumar delivered the verdict in the presence of Bishop who was accused of raping a 44-year-old nun at her convent several times.
Rekha Sharma, the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women has said that she is shocked to learn of the judgement pronounced by the Kerala Court and that the victim nun must appeal to the High Court. “The Victim Nun must go to the high court. National Commission for Women is with her in this fight for justice”, she tweeted.
Shocked at the judgment of Kerala Addl. dist and session court. The Victim Nun must go to high court . @ncwIndia is with her in this fight for justice.
— Rekha Sharma (@sharmarekha) January 14, 2022
Bishop Franco Mulakkal, Accused Of Nun’s Rape In Kerala, Acquitted https://t.co/Rkhhv9zKaw
According to the reports, the Kuravilangad Police in 2018 had registered a case on the basis of a complaint filed by a nun against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar Diocese. According to the complaint the nun was raped several times by the bishop at Missionaries of Jesus convent between 2014 and 2016.
Following the complaint, several nuns from the convent had protested against the Bishop and requested the Vatican’s ambassador in Delhi, Giambattista Diquattro and the Pope to dismiss the Bishop from his position. The sisters during the ‘Save Our Sisters’ protest had also called for Franco’s arrest.
In September 2018, the Bishop was arrested for interrogation and was remanded to judicial custody. According to the nuns who stood in support of the victim, several such complaints against the Bishop were overlooked by the authorities. Sister Lucy Kalapura, one of the protester nuns also was permanently expelled from the Church.
The Bishop had then denied the charges as he called the complaint by nun baseless and formulated until the Kerala High Court in 2020 ruled that he must face trial in the case.
The legal charges addressed against the Bishop are under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 376 (c)(a) sexual intercourse by a person in authority), 376(2)(k) (sexual intercourse by exhorting authority), 377 (unnatural sex) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
