Close on the heels of a sex scandal in the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, in which five priests were accused by a laywoman of sexually exploiting her, a scandal has erupted in the Catholic Church with a senior nun alleging rape by Bishop Franco Mulakkal, the head of the Latin diocese of Jalandhar.
The nun has filed a case with the Kuravilangad police here. However, her complaint comes a few days after the bishop himself had filed a case of blackmail by relatives of the nun.
According to the police, the nun had complained that she was raped and sexually exploited 14 times by the bishop since May 2014. She was sexually exploited at the Church’s guest house facility at Kuravilangad. She approached the Church hierarchy but they had turned a deaf ear to her plea, she said. She then decided to approach the police.
Meanwhile, the bishop, in his complaint to the police, alleged that he was blackmailed by the relatives of the nun. She was working in Jalandhar and he had initiated disciplinary action against her. When he visited Kuravilangad recently, the nun’s relatives allegedly threatened him with blackmail and wanted the disciplinary action to be revoked, the complaint said.
District Police Chief Harishanker saud he had received the complaint from the nun and since there was an earlier complaint from the bishop, he had asked for a full investigation. K. Subhash, Dy.SP, Vaikom, has been entrusted with the investigation.
