Anushka Pathak, Mumbai Uncensored, 14th January 2022 :
The Additional District and Sessions court in Kottayam on Friday (January 14), acquitted Bishop Franco Mulakkal in the sensational case pertaining to the rape of a catholic nun.
“Daivathinu Sthuthi (Praise the Lord!)” Mulakkal told reporters, before leaving the court premises. He broke down in court and embraced his lawyers when the verdict was announced.
Franco Mulakkal, 57, was the first Catholic Bishop in India to go on trial for rape on the complaint of a catholic nun. After a trial of more than 100 days, the additional sessions court announced a single line verdict saying it had found him not guilty of the charges.
In June 2018, a nun from the Missionaries of Jesus congregation under the Jalandhar diocese had accused Bishop Franco of repeatedly raping her between 2014 and 2016 while he was the head of the Missionaries of Jesus order.
Denying the rape allegations, the Bishop claimed that the story was ‘fabricated’ and was in retaliation for taking action against her with regard to a complaint raised by a woman.
The allegations were followed by street protests by several nuns, who demanded action by the church, police and the Kerala government. The Bishop was then arrested in September, the same year. He was in jail for 25 days after the court remanded him.
The chargesheet against the Bishop, which consisted of 2,000 pages in three volumes, was submitted in April 2019. The trial in the case commenced in November 2019 and concluded on January 10., 2022. Of the 83 witnesses listed by the prosecution, 39 were examined during the trial.
The Investigating Officer S Harisankar, former Kottayam SP, said to the reporters, “This is an extremely unfortunate verdict, it is shocking for us. We had expected a conviction fully. We will appeal. We had a lot of corroborative evidence. All the witnesses in the case were ordinary people.”
