An additional sessions court in Kottayam Kerala has acquitted Bishop Franco Mulakkal today. Since it was the first case in India where a Bishop was arrested sent to judicial custody for 25 days, heavy police deployment was at Kottayam Session Court.
Bishop Mulakkal was arrested in September 2018 after a complaint from a nun, who had alleged that he had raped her 13 times at her congregation mission house during the period of 5th May 2014 to 2016.
This case made waves in and around the Indian Catholic circle. It saw many protests for and against the Bishop.
He was charged under Sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 376 (2)(k), 376(2)(n) (rigorous imprisonment for not less than 10 years), 376 C(a) (intercourse by the superintendent of remand home etc), 377 (unnatural offences) and 506(ii) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
On his acquittal, the investigating officer S Harisankar, former Kottayam SP, told reporters that
"This is an extremely unfortunate verdict, it is shocking for us. We had expected a conviction fully. We will appeal. We had a lot of corroborative evidence. All the witnesses in the case were ordinary people,"
