A court in Kerala on Friday acquitted Roman Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the charges of raping a nun in a convent in the southern state.
As the prosecution failed to produce evidence against the accused, the Additional District and Sessions Court II acquitted the Bishop.
What was the Kerala nun rape case?
Mulakkal, 57, was accused of raping the nun multiple times during his visit to a convent in this district when he was the Bishop of the Jalandhar diocese of the Roman Catholic church.
Mullakkal however denied the rape charges saying he was framed after he took action against her for financial irregularities in the convent. The victim is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation based in Punjab, which also runs three convents in Kerala.
The case had attracted national attention after five fellow nuns had sat on a two-week protest in Kochi demanding action against Mulakkal. In October, the victim had registered a complaint with the state women’s commission accusing that Mulakkal and his supporters were harassing her on social media.
The rape case against the Bishop was registered by police in Kottayam district in June, 2018. In her complaint to the police, the nun had alleged that she was subjected to sexual abuse by Mulakkal between 2014 and 2016.
He was eventually apprehended in September 2018 by a special investigation team formed to investigate the matter. He was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code including 376 (2) (indulging in sex by exhorting authority), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
During the course of the trial, he had moved the High Court and Supreme Court with discharge petitions, but both were dismissed.
The case was also harmed with witnesses turning hostile. An important witness, Father Kattuthara was found dead near Jalandhar in 2019. Cardinal Mar George Alancherry, the senior-most priest of the Catholics in the state, was also removed in the case as a witness.
Despite heavy criticism from all over the country, the church reportedly backed the accused and allegedly tried to isolate the nuns. Reformists in the church later formed a group Save Our Sisters (SOS) which took up their cause.
The court had restrained the print and electronic media from publishing any matter relating to the trial in the case without its permission.
Trial in the case, which started in November 2019, concluded on January 10.
With PTI Inputs
