Bishop Franco Mulakkal, a senior member of the Roman Catholic clergy in India, was arrested on Friday night amid mounting public outrage over allegations of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a nun, police said.
The 54-year old Mulakkal was arrested by Kerala police after intense interrogation here over the last three days.
The development came a day after the Vatican relieved him “temporarily” of all pastoral responsibilities as the bishop of the Jalandhar diocese of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation to which the alleged victim also belongs.
Bishop Mulakkal had been arrested at 8 p and taken for medical examination, Kottayam district police chief Hari Sankar told reporters.
He would be produced in a magistrate court in Pala in Kottayam district tomorrow, Inspector General of Police (Kochi Range) Vijay Sakhare told PTI.
The nun had accused the clergyman of repeatedly raping and having unnatural sex with her between 2014 and 2016, a charge denied by him.
