‘See no merit in your petition’: SC to rape-accused bishop Franco Mulakkal
Franco Mulakkal, while serving as Bishop of Jalandhar Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, was accused of raping a nun belonging to the Missionaries of Jesus congregation. The complaint was filed with the Kerala police in June 2018.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed deposed Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal to face trial as it dismissed his plea seeking discharge in the rape case lodged against him by a nun, saying that there is no merit in his petition.
“You don’t have a case, we do not see any merit in your petition,” said an SC bench headed by CJI SA Bobde.
Appearing for Mulakkal, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi sought to convince a bench that his client was being made a victim for proceeding against the nun. The bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, however, was not convinced.
Mulakkal, while serving as Bishop of Jalandhar Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, was accused of raping a nun belonging to the Missionaries of Jesus congregation. The complaint was filed with the Kerala police in June 2018. Mulakkal was accused of raping the 43-year-old nun on more than 13 occasions during his visits to the Kerala convent between 2014 and 2016. The victim was the Mother Superior of the convent in question.
He was later removed from the charge of the Jalandhar diocese. He first approached the local court in Kerala praying for discharge, claiming that he was being falsely implicated by the victim who had an axe to grind against him after he initiated disciplinary proceedings against her for alleged financial misdemeanors.
The plea was dismissed in March following which he approached Kerala High Court.
His petition before the HC stated, “Due to the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the petitioner (Mulakkal) against the sister, she has maliciously and falsely implicated him with an ulterior motive to wreak vengeance on him and cooked up this story just because of her personal grudge towards him, without any justification.”
After examining the wealth of evidence against him, the July 7 HC order dismissing his petition, noted, “Rape is the most revolting, cruel and hated crime to a woman… Thus when the records indicate that prima facie materials are available to show that the Sister was subjected to sexual assault, including rape, at the hands of the superior authority who is the Bishop of the Diocese, it is not possible to infer that this Bishop was falsely implicated by the Mother Superior of the Home functioning under him, on mere enmity as contended by him.”
Mulakkal pinned hopes on the Supreme Court to avert a possible trial.
The Kerala government had filed a caveat in the Supreme Court anticipating an order on his plea. The state police filed the charge-sheet in April 2019 naming Mulakkal. Even the Kerala High Court had said that the antecedents of the victim do not make out a case to doubt the prosecution story.
