Causing further embarrassment to rape accused former bishop of Jalandhar Franco Mulakkal, a statement of one more nun in Kerala alleging sexual misconduct by Franco has come out.
Police officials who investigated the existing rape case against Franco in Kerala said that two women, including a nun and a former nun, had alleged of sexual misconducts they faced from Franco.
Statement of a nun attached to Missionaries of Jesus, who is a witness in the existing rape case against Franco in Kerala, had said in her statement to the police that Franco once tried to grab her in a convent in Kerala and he even used to make sexual talks over video calls. The nun said that she did not reveal the matter to anyone owing to fear as Franco was highly influential. The statement has now come out in the open.
A senior police official who was part of the investigation into the existing rape case against Franco told DH that apart from a nun another former nun had also given statements about sexual misconduct they faced from Franco.
While one of the alleged incidents took place in North Kerala, the other one took place in another state. Hence the police officials of those places were alerted. Though the police officials contacted them for pursuing legal actions against Franco, they were not willing to lodge any complaint against Franco.
Franco is facing trial in the case pertaining to sexual assault on a nun of a convent at Kuravilangad in Kottayam district 13 times between 2014 and 2016. He was charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for rape, unnatural sex, illegal detention, and criminal intimidation. Though the nun complained to the police in 2017 June, the investigation commenced only after protests by a group of nuns under the banner ‘Save our sisters’ in Kochi. Franco was arrested on September 21, 2018.