By Matters India Reporter
Kottayam, March 16, 2020: The Kottayam Additional district sessions Court in Kerala on March 16 dismissed the discharge petition filed by Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, accused of raping a nun multiple times over a period of two years.
The court ruling now forces the 55-year-old prelate to face trial in the case, which is expected to begin soon.
Bishop Mulakkal’s lawyer on January 25 filed an application in the district court to dismiss all charges against the prelate in the alleged rapes of a Catholic sister.
In his petition, Bishop Mulakkal, who is free on bail since October 16, 2018, asked the court to dismiss the charges without making him stand trial.
His lawyer argued that the charges in the case will not stand because they are based only on the statements of witnesses who have resentment against the bishop.
The lawyer also said most witnesses against Bishop Mulakkal in the case do not have a good relationship with the church.
Bishop Mulakkal is accused of wrongful confinement, rape of a woman incapable of giving consent, causing grievous bodily harm during rape, unnatural offense (or sodomy) and criminal intimidation.
The trial was supposed to begin on November 11, 2019, but was adjourned to November 30, which was again extended several times. Bishop Mulakkal appeared in the court only once, on November 30, 2019.
The court had summoned the prelate to appear before it on January 25 to hear the charges against him. But on that day the lawyer filed for the dismissal of the case.
The case is being tried in Kerala because the alleged crimes took place in a Missionaries of Jesus convent in Kuravilangad near Kottayam, where the survivor and her five supporters now live.
Bishop Mulakkal can now appeal to the Kerala High Court in Kochi and then to the Supreme Court in New Delhi to get the case dismissed.
Meanwhile, Roshan Joseph, a lay leader in Punjab, told Matters India on March 16 that the native Catholics of Punjab have welcomed the court’s ruling. They have renewed their demand for replacing Bishop Mulakkal, who hails from Kerala, with a native prelate.
Joseph also said Bishop Mulakkal had been telling churches in Jalandhar that the court would dismiss the case against him and that he would come back as the Jalandhar bishop, a post he had resigned in September 2018 before going to Kerala to face police interrogation.
Bishop Mulakkal, who was arrested on September 21, 2018, on rape charges, got bail on October 16, 2018. The Kerala Police has filed a 2,000-page charge sheet against him. The charge sheet names 83 witnesses, including Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, three bishops, 11 priests and many nuns.
The demand for Mulakkal’s removal as a bishop has gained momentum after the court’s March 16 ruling.
“The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India should show the courage to remove the prelate from the Church in view of the court accepting the prosecution charges,” said a press note from Felix J Pulloodan, joint convener of the Save Our Sisters Action Council.