Actor Alencier stirs up another controversy for his comments on rape; victim-blames survivor nun

Malayalam actor Alencier Ley Lopez had earlier been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.

He was accused of sexually harassing a colleague, Divya Gopinath, in October 2018 as the #MeToo moment was continuing to gain momentum in the country. She had come out against Alencier’s alleged acts of sexual harassment on the sets of a film, in an emotional video posted on Facebook.

The actress had filed a complaint against the Alencier with Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) and demanded a public apology from him which he later did.

Alencier has now stirred up another controversy by making insensitive comments about rape and the MeToo case involving the Bishop of Jalandhar diocese Franco Mulakkal.

During an interview with the news and entertainment platform Editoreal, Alencier asked whether the survivor nun who filed the case of rape against the bishop was unaware that it was rape the first time it happened.

“Whether you are a nun or a film actor, you need intelligence and common sense. How can someone be raped 12 times? Don’t you know it is rape after the first time? Where was your intelligence and common sense the first 12 times you were raped? That is fake,” he said when asked about the complaints of sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry.

It refers to the 2018 case in which the 57-year-old bishop of the Jalandhar diocese was accused of raping a nun several times while visiting a convent in Kottayam between 2014 and 2016.

The survivor nun who is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, a diocesan congregation under the Jalandhar Diocese, had lodged a complaint about the alleged sexual assault sending shock waves across Kerala.

While Mulakkal received a lot of support from the Church, the survivor nun and the five other nuns who stood with her were ostracised.

Mulakkal was acquitted of the rape charges by the Additional District and Sessions Court I, Kottayam for the prosecution failed to produce evidence against the accused. He had then returned to his pastoral duties.

The nun had then filed an appeal against it at the High Court.

Aliencier is known for his public stands and unique protests against social and political issues.

Scriptwriter Syam Pushkaran, who had worked with Alencier in several films before, during a public event in 2019 extended his support to the survivor saying that humanity came before friendship.