Bishop may be quizzed at police headquarters

KOTTAYAM:

Jalandhar

bishop

Franco Mulakkal

, who has been accused of sexual abuse by a Catholic nun, is likely to be summoned to the Jalandhar police headquarters for interrogation by a

Kerala Police

team that is currently there in that city as part of investigations. Sources said that the Kerala Police team was unlikely to visit the bishop’s house to take the statement of the accused.


The six-member probe team lead by Vaikom DSP K Subhash will interrogate a couple of Amritsar-based priests close to the

bishop

before summoning him, it is learnt. The bishop’s interrogation may happen on Monday or Tuesday. The bishop will face a list of questions already prepared by the probe team.

According to a senior Kerala Police officer, if the interrogation confirms that the bishop is guilty, then an arrest will be made after discussing the procedures with top Kerala Police department officials. Meanwhile, the police team interrogated Fr Antony, the director of the pastoral centre of the Jalandhar diocese, on Sunday.

After the session, DSP Subhash told reporters that some more priests close to the bishop would have to be interrogated before quizzing the bishop.

The team had on Saturday questioned the nuns of the Mission of Jesus Sisters (MJS) in Jalandhar Cantonment for eight hours. The complainant nun is a member of MJS and was working in Jalandhar.

According to sources, the nuns had disclosed about a prayer session conducted by the bishop for the nuns of the diocese on the second Saturday of every month. Some nuns are learnt to have told the probe team that the bishop used to talk about matters other than spiritual during the session called ‘A day with the shepherd’. However, the nuns refused to divulge what exactly he spoke about. This session was later called off by the diocese due to unknown reasons.

Meanwhile, Kottayam SP Hari Sankar said that the Punjab Police had extended all support to the Kerala Police team which was currently in Jalandhar.