Kerala nun rape case: Catholic bishop Franco Mulakkal arrested

After three days of questioning, the Kerala Police on Friday arrested Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who heads the Roman Catholic Diocese in Jalandhar and has been accused of repeatedly raping a nun, police said.

He was taken for medical examination and will be produced before a court on Saturday.

This is first time in the country that a bishop has been arrested for rape.

Addressing reporters here on Friday night, after Mulakkal was taken out from the Crime Branch office where he was questioned, Kottayam Superintendent of Police Hari Sankar said all paper work for the arrest has been completed.

"He has been charged for illegal confinement, rape, unnatural sex and criminal intimidation. The arrest was made on the grounds of reasonable suspicion, which is enough for effecting an arrest. He was also given reasonable time to defend himself.

"The arrest has come after analysing all the evidences collected in the past two months of probe. The conspiracy angle that came out was also looked into," said Hari Sankar.

"The arrest came after multi-level discussions and we will be looking into more evidences. Also, the investigation officer will look into if there were more people involved," he added.

Mulakkal was taken to the Tripunithura Taluk Hospital for the medical examination. From there, he was taken in a police vehicle to Kottayam, about 60 km from here.

"Tomorrow (Saturday) he will be produced in a court," said Hari Sankar.

The arrest came after the bishop was questioned for three consecutive days at the Crime Branch office near Tripunithura here.

Mulakkal has been accused of repeatedly sexually abusing the nun between 2014 and 2016. She raised her complaint against the Bishop in June.

The news of his arrest was received with shouting of slogans at a venue where five nuns have been on an indefinite protest along with the public for the past 14 days demanding his arrest.

"We still can't believe that he has been arrested. We are overjoyed," exclaimed a nun. "We are extremely happy. This happened only because we got the support of public and also the media," said another nun.

The arrest became a certainty on Friday morning when a police official came to the victim, who is staying at a convent near Kottayam, to take statements for the seventh time when she first raised the issue in June.

The official took about half hour and passed on the outcome to the investigation officer who was questioning the bishop.

The nuns in Kochi protesting for the past 14 days demanding his arrest also secured widespread support from the civil society.

Like the past two days, on Friday too the bishop accompanied by his counsel and a few priests arrived for the questioning under heavy police escort around 10.45 am.

With Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the US for medical treatment, Industries Minister EP Jayarajan, the de facto Chief Minister, said earlier that the probe was progressing in the right direction.

"The government has always been with the victim and whosoever does a wrong, the wrongdoer will be taken to task," he said.

Hari Sankar early on Friday met Inspector General of Police Vijay Sakhre, who is heading the probe team. Now with the bishop's arrest, his anticipatory bail plea filed before the Kerala High Court on September 25 has turned infructuous.

An FIR was registered against the bishop and a 114-page detailed statement was taken from the nun and other inmates of the convent.