By Matters India Reporter
Jalandhar: The diocese of Jalandhar on July 27 denied offering money to buy the silence of a nun who has accused a bishop of sexually abusing her.
“Outright lies,” says the diocese referring to reports in some Malayalam media groups that a friend of Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar had offered 50 million rupees to the nun’s brother to withdraw the case.
The nun was also offered a high post in the diocese if she backed off, manoramaonline.com reported on July 26 quoting a statement the nun’s brother submitted to a police officer in Kerala.
The website also reported nun’s brother resentment at the police’s failure to arrest the bishop despite providing them what he said was sufficient proof of the sexual abuse.
Jalandhar diocese, which maintains the bishop is innocent and the case as act of vendetta by the nun, asserted that neither the prelate nor anyone linked to him had made any offer of money to the nun or her brother.
The nun and her brother came with the money-for-silence allegation after their attempt to blackmail Cardinal George Alencherry through an audio clip failed, said the Punjab-based diocese in a press release issued in Malayalam, the language of Kerala.
On July 19, social media platforms and media outlets in Kerala published the nun’s telephonic conversation with the cardinal complaining about her difficulties from Bishop Mulakkal.
The nun, who now lives in Kerala, had earlier worked in Jalandhar, a northern Indian diocese where her congregation, Missionaries of Jesus, is based. She was its former superior general.
In her police complaint, the nun has accused the bishop of sexually abusing her 13 times during 2014-2016 at their convent in Kuravilangadu in Kerala.
The nun’s brother conceded that he had given the audio clip to media groups. He said he was forced to do so after the cardinal denied that the nun had told him about sexual abuse.
Jalandhar diocese dismissed the reports as baseless and demanded action against those making the allegation and spreading it.
Meanwhile more groups have demanded the resignation of Bishop Mulakkal.
On July 27 a group of Christians demonstrated in Gurudaspur, a town in Punjab some 100 km north of Jalandhar, and burned the bishop’s effigy. They have threatened to take the agitation to other parts of Punjab.