Bishop Mulakkal remanded to 12-day judicial custody

Roman Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal, arrested on charges of repeatedly raping a nun, was remanded to a 12-day judicial custody by a court in Kerala's Kottayam district on Monday.

Mulakkal was produced before the Pala magistrate court after completion of his two-day police custody.

The court remanded him to judicial custody till October 6.

The clergyman has been shifted to the sub-jail in Pala after medical examination at a hospital there.

Meanwhile, the priest moved a bail plea in the Kerala high court on Monday, after it was rejected by the magistrate court on Saturday.

Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan posted the plea on Thursday for consideration.

The court said the anticipatory bail plea filed by the bishop last week had become infructuous with his arrest.

A high court division bench, comprising Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar, on Monday disposed a bunch of petitions, including those seeking protection to the nun and a court-monitored probe, in view of the police action against the senior priest. Another petition seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation was withdrawn.

On Sunday, the bishop was taken to the St Francis Mission Home in Kuravilangad, where he had allegedly raped the nun at a guest house, to reconstruct the crime scene.

In its remand report submitted in the court, police had said the nun was subjected to rape and unnatural sex 13 times by the accused between 2014 and 2016.

In her complaint in June, the nun had alleged that the priest raped her in May 2014 and sexually-exploited her on several occasions.

The nun had said she approached the police as church authorities did not act on her repeated complaints against the clergyman. However, the bishop has denied the charges.