Pressure continued to mount on the Kerala Police on Sunday to arrest Latin Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal (54) of the Jalandhar Diocese, accused of raping a senior Catholic nun, with support pouring in from various quarters for the battle being waged against him by the victim and her colleagues in her convent who have accused the State police chief, DGP Loknath Behera, of shielding the prelate and trying to derail the ongoing probe.
At least ten priests from various Christian churches, legal luminaries, political and cultural leaders and activists of organizations working for reforms in the Church declared solidarity with the nuns fighting against the Bishop by reaching the venue of their sit-in at Kochi’s Marine Drive on Sunday, the second day of their indefinite agitation.
As pressure mounted on him for taking stern and immediate action in the case, DGP Behera expanded the investigation team by including two Circle Inspectors and a Sub Inspector and issued instructions for completing the probe within 15 days. A small police team headed by K Subhash, DySP, Vaikom, Kottayam, has been probing the case for the past 75 days.
The DGP took the decision to speed up the probe amidst intense protests from the rape victim’s colleagues at St Francis Mission Home, her convent at Kuravilangad in Kottayam district over the delay in the arrest of the accused and a reported move to hand over the case to the Crime Branch of the State police which is seen as yet another strategy to delay and derail the probe.
“The DGP and the Inspector General (Vijay Sakare, who is overseeing the current probe) are trying to derail the case,” said one of the five nuns who are on the war front for the victim. She said they had full trust in the probe being carried out by the present team and the two officers in charge of it, DySP Subhash and Hari Shankar, Superintendent of Police, Kottayam.
Behera rejected the reports about a move from his part for handing over the probe to the CBI by saying that no such decision had been taken. “I have not reviewed the case. It is the Inspector General who is handling it. He is satisfied with the (current) probe,” he said, adding that Sakare had reported that the probe was progressing in the right direction.
The victim’s charge against the Bishop is that he had raped her at a guest house attached to her convent 13 times between 2014 and 2016. The nun had lodged her complaint with the police by June-end and the investigation team has already recorded her statement six times but the only concrete action they took against the rape-accused Bishop was to record his statement just once.
The nun’s family is expected to file a petition in the High Court on Monday seeking orders for immediate arrest of the Bishop. The nuns supporting the victim said they would initiate legal proceedings against Independent Catholic MLA PC George, who had the other day made some extremely derogatory remarks against the victim.
Declaring solidarity with the agitating nuns at the venue of their protest in Kochi on Sunday, Justice (Retired) B Kemal Pasha said, “We can see some kind of give-and-take (arrangement) between the police and the rape-accused Bishop. We should note that this is happening under (the LDF) Government that came to power on the promise to ensure women’s safety.”
Senior priest Fr Paul Thelekkat, former spokesman of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, said at the protest venue, “I have come here in the name of a belief. The Church and all of us should understand the relevance of the cry of these nuns.” Fr Thelekkat was the first Catholic Church personality to come out in support of the victim and the nuns supporting her.
PT Thomas MLA of the Congress, which like most other parties in Kerala has been reticent so far on the issue, lashed out at the LDF Government by asking, “Why is the Government unwilling to arrest the Bishop when he does not have any legal protection that other ordinary people do not have?”
Meanwhile, the State police chief and the National Commission for Women initiated steps for action against legislator PC George for his derogatory remarks against the victim and the nuns supporting her. DGP Behera issued instructions for examining the video recording of the Press meet in which George made the remarks to see if a case could be registered suo moto.
A Delhi report quoted NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma as saying, “I want action to be taken against people (like George) so that other such persons can learn a lesson... It is a shame that legislators are talking in such language when they should be helping the victims.” The NCW chief also instructed the Kerala DGP to take action against George.
