Kerala church activist threatens nuns over Franco Mulakkal case, arrested

The Kerala police on Saturday arrested the Indian Catholic Forum general secretary Kennedy Karimpinkalay for allegedly threatening the nun and five others who stood with her in the rape case against former bishop of Jalandhar Franco Mulakkal.

In the complaint, the victim and other nuns who supported her said he was frequently posting threats and objectionable materials to portray them in bad light. Later the case was handed over to the cyber wing which arrested the church activist from his house on the outskirts of Kochi.

During investigation, the cyber wing found that he was posting many messages discreetly to discredit the victim and others. A staunch supporter of Franco Mulakkal, he used to appear in TV debates representing the Indian Catholic Forum, a body associated with the Catholic church.

The trial against the former bishop is going on in a special court in Kottayam. Earlier his plea to quash the case was dismissed by the Kerala High Court and later the Supreme Court. The case surfaced two years ago, when a 43-year-old nun, also a mother superior, had complained to the police in Kottayam in central Kerala that Mulakkal had raped her several times between 2014 and 2016.

The nun is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation based in Punjab. Mulakkal denied the charges, saying he was implicated after he took action against the nun for financial irregularities in the convent. Later, a special investigation team arrested him in September 2018 and subsequently he was removed from the post of bishop. The SIT had filed the charge sheet against him last year. There were allegations that the accused was trying to delay the trial. The petitioner had also complained that some of the witnesses were threatened by the followers of Mulakkal.