Kerala HC postpones hearing on Bishop's anticipatory bail plea

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has postponed hearing on an anticipatory bail plea by Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of sexually assaulting a nun.

The HC will hear the case on September 25.

The bishop moved the high court with an anticipatory bail plea apprehending arrest in the non-bailable offence a day before his appearance before the special investigation team of the Kerala police on Wednesday.

The bishop in his plea to the HC, alleged conspiracy behind the case and said that he was cooperating with the investigation. He has also urged the court to consider his plea Tuesday itself and to prevent arrest till the bail plea was heard.

The nun had accused the clergyman of sexually assaulting her 13 times between 2014 and 2016 during his visits to the Jalandhar-diocese run convent at Kuruvilangad in Kottayam district.

Mulakkal has however denied the allegations terming them as 'baseless and concocted'.

The nun had recently sought urgent intervention of the Vatican for justice and demanded the bishop's removal as the head of the Jalandhar diocese, questioning why the church was 'closing its eyes to the truth' when she has mustered courage to make public her suffering.

She had alleged that the Bishop was using 'political and money power' to 'bury' the case against him.

The Bishop had claimed there were 'several contradictions' in the evidence collected against him by the police probing the case.

He had also written to the pope offering to 'step aside temporarily' as bishop of the Jalandhar diocese.