Kochi: Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who has been hauled up by the police on the charge of raping a nun, has not been sitting quiet after the event.
The survivor nun has filed a complaint with the national and state women’s commissions stating that the bishop has been defaming her through social media platforms. She accused him of promoting a YouTube channel, ‘Christian Times,’ making threatening contents against her.
Kerala State Women’s Commission chairperson M.C. Josephine said the complaint was very grave and that the DGP and the cyber police would be asked to submit a report within 10 days. Stringent action would be initiated against him for defaming her, she said.
Meanwhile, the bishop has been summoned by the additional district sessions court at Kottayam to be personally present in the court for the trial of the rape case which will begin on November 11.
As per the prosecution, Bishop Franco raped and forced the nun to have unnatural sex with him on many occasions between 2014 and 2017. The bishop has been arraigned as an accused under IPC sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 376 (2k) (rape on a woman incapable of giving consent), 376 (2n) (causing grievous bodily harm during rape), 376 (c) (a) 377 (unnatural offence) and 506 (1) (criminal intimidation).
The police has so far registered eight additional cases related to those who have tried to influence, defame and threaten the nun after the rape case was filed by her. The investigations, including the one against Fr. Joseph Erthayil, are moving at a snail's pace and no chargesheets were submitted so far in these cases.
Although the Kuruvilangad police has registered a case against the ‘Christian Times’ channel, it again released a series of videos capable of revealing the identity of the victim, the nun’s complaint to the women's commission stated.
The accused were making a deliberate attempt to isolate and demoralise her by such propaganda, it said. In one of the videos, the nun was compared to the alleged serial killer at Koodathai, Kozhikode.
