Nun rape case: Kerala HC to pronounce order on Franco Mulakkal's bail plea on Oct 3

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 27: The Kerala High Court will pronounce its order on the bail plea of Franco Mulakkal, a former Bishop who has been accused of raping a nun, on October 3. During the hearing today (September 27), the police opposed the bail plea.

On Saturday (September 22), the Kerala High Court had rejected the bail plea of Mulakkal and sent him to two-day police custody, which ended on Monday.

On Monday, a Kottayam court had sent him to judicial custody till October 6. Mulakkal was arrested by the Kerala police on Friday (September 21) on charges of raping a nun.

Mulakkal, accused of raping the nun 13 times between 2014 and 2016, was relieved of his church duties by the Pope's Ambassador on Thursday.

The former Bishop was questioned for nearly 7 hours on September 20 during which he repeatedly pleaded his innocence, telling his interrogators that he had not gone to Kerala's Kuravilangad convent on the days when the nun has accused him of assaulting her, said reports.

His lawyers had earlier moved the application seeking relief, submitting that the clergyman was arrested after a three-day long interrogation by the probe team. Mulakkal's medical check-up was done at the Government Taluk Hospital in Thrippunithura Friday night, immediately after his arrest.

Mulakkal was on Sunday taken to a guest house, where the rape accused Bishop is said to have committed the crime, by police for reconstruction of the crime scene. In its remand report submitted in the court, police had said the nun was subjected to rape and unnatural sex by the accused at the guest house of St Francis Mission Home 13 times between 2014 and 2016.