The Kerala High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Franco Mulakkal who was arrested on allegations of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a nun.
He was arrested on September 21 by Kerala police after 3 days of interrogation. The Vatican has also relieved "temporarily" of all pastoral responsibilities as the bishop of the Jalandhar diocese of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation to which the alleged victim also belongs.
The nun had accused the 54-year old clergyman of repeatedly raping and having unnatural sex with her between 2014 and 2016.
In her complaint to Kottayam police in June, the nun had alleged that Bishop Mulakkal raped her at a guest house in Kuravilangad in May 2014 and later sexually exploited her on several occasions.
She said she had to approach police as the church authorities did not act on her repeated complaints against the clergyman. Earlier this month, she wrote to the Vatican's representative in New Delhi, alleging that the bishop was using "political and money power" to "bury" the case and seeking his removal.
The sleaze scandal got murkier when the bishop too filed a complaint against the nun, claiming he was being blackmailed by her for not extending her favours. Outrage over the delay in the top clergyman's arrest, meanwhile, grew. The protests by Christian reformation organisations escalated after some nuns of the religious order came out of the confines of their convent and joined the agitation.
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