By Matters India Reporter
Kottayam: A police team in Kerala investigating the alleged rape of a nun by a bishop plans to seek permission to conduct a polygraph test on the accused prelate.
A court on September 22 sent Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar to police custody for two days. He was arrested on September 21 in Thrippunithura, near Kochi, after three-days of interrogation.
The member of Missionaries of Jesus, congregation under Jalandhar diocese, has accused the prelate of subjecting her to rape and unnatural sex 13 times between 2014 and 2016.
The police have asked for the polygraph test, as according to them, as the prelate refused to cooperate with them during the interrogation. Police said the accused bishop kept repeating words such as “don’t remember” and “don’t know” and later refuses to respond during the interrogation.
On September 21, the police team took the bishop to a convent in Kuravilangad, the crime scene some 50 km southeast of Kochi, as a part of the evidence collection process.
A polygraph, popularly referred to as a lie detector, measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a person is asked and answers a series of questions.
The belief underpinning the use of the polygraph is that deceptive answers will produce physiological responses that can be differentiated from those associated with non-deceptive answers. There are, however, no specific physiological reactions associated with lying, making it difficult to identify factors that separate liars from truth tellers.
Polygraph examiners also prefer to use their own individual scoring method, as opposed to computerized techniques, as they may more easily defend their own evaluations.