Kerala nun rape case: Sister Lucy Kalappura, who protested against Franco Mulakkal, dismissed from Franciscan Clarist Congregation

In the latest development in the Kerala nun rape case, Sister Lucy Kalappura, one of the nuns who had participated in the protest against rape-accused bishop Franco Mulakkal, has been dismissed from the Franciscan Clarist Congregation, reported ANI.

Kerala: Sister Lucy Kalappura, one of the nuns who had participated in the protest against rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, has been dismissed from the Franciscan Clarist Congregation. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/pkncy3byF0

— ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2019

Franco Mulakkal was arrested on 21 September, 2018 on a nun’s complaint that he had raped her at least 13 times between 2014 and 2016. As reported by The Times of India, last month, Sister Anupama, one of the supporters of the case, had said that efforts are being made to sabotage evidence and shield the rape-accused bishop. She gave the statement after a local court in Kerala’s Pala found irregularities in the copies of the cyber forensic report submitted in a DVD by the police and laboratory. Sister Anupama had also expressed fears earlier this year regarding the safety of the witnesses in the case. She said, “We witnesses are in extreme fear. Two months back, there was an attempt to transfer us all to various parts of the country and to isolate the complainant nun. Don’t know how long we’ll be able to withstand the situation”, reported NDTV. In January this year, four of the five nuns who supported their fellow nun, Sister Alphy Pallasseril, Sister Anupama Kelamangalathuveliyil, Sister Josephine Villoonnickal, and Sister Ancitta Urumbil, have been asked to leave the Kuravilangad convent. In an effort to isolate the nuns, and to break their collective strength, each of them has been asked to return to the convent they were previously assigned by the Missionaries of Jesus, reported The News Minute. Last year in October, the prime witness in the Kerala nun rape case , Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, who had testified against the rape-accused priest Mulakkal, was found dead in his room in a church in Bhogpur in Jalandhar. While several priests, as well as his family, had alleged a conspiracy into the death, Father Peter, Mulakkal’s spokesperson from the Jalandhar diocese, had asserted that Kattuthara’s death was “natural”, reported CNN-News18. Currently, Mulakkal is out on bail. He was released from a sub-jail near Kottayam on 17 October, a day after the Kerala High Court granted him bail . This year, the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Pala in Kottayam had heard his plea seeking an extension of his bail and has agreed to extend it, reported The News Minute. With inputs from agencies