Kerala nun rape: Kottayam court sends accused Franco Mulakkal to judicial custody till 6 Oct, bishop to be housed in Pala sub-jail

The Pala Judicial Magistrate Court in Kottayam in Kerala on Monday remanded Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a nun, to judicial custody till 6 October. According to CNN-News18, Mulakkal told the court that the police forcefully took away his clothes. He will now be taken to the Pala sub-jail. Meanwhile, a bail plea has also been filed at the Kerala High Court. The order as the Kerala High Court posted his bail plea for a Thursday hearing. The high court had rejected his bail application on Saturday and had sent him to a two-day police custody. His lawyers had moved the application seeking relief, submitting that the clergyman was arrested after a three-day long interrogation by the probe team. [caption id=“attachment_5248691” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Bishop Franco Mulakkal being taken to court. PTI[/caption] On Saturday, the police, opposing the plea, said his three-day custody was required to conduct his potency test and to recover the laptop, mobile phone and the dress used by the accused. They said his body fluid and DNA samples were required to be collected as part of the probe. Recording the submissions, the magistrate had granted two-day custody of the bishop to the police till 2.30 pm on Monday. Mulakkal taken for reconstruction of crime scene Mulakkal was taken to a guest house at nearby Kuravilangadu by police for reconstruction of the crime scene on Sunday. The police vehicle carrying the bishop reached the St Francis Mission Home at 10.20 am and left the place after completing the procedure at 11.10 am. In its remand report submitted in the court, police had said the nun was subjected to rape and unnatural sex by the accused at the guest house of St Francis Mission Home 13 times between 2014 and 2016. The victim and her fellow nuns staying in the home were not present there when Mulakkal was brought. Official sources said police planned to move an application in the court, seeking permission to subject the bishop to a lie detector as he was still reluctant to make the confessional statement. Earlier, the bishop was discharged from the Government Medical College Hospital in Kottayam, where he was admitted on Friday night following complaints of chest pain. The 54-year-old clergyman had complained of pain in his chest while being taken to Kottayam Police club from the Crime Branch office at Thrippunithura in Ernakulam district on Friday night. He was under observation in the cardiology section of the hospital for over six hours after his blood pressure shot up, official sources said. Mulakkal, who headed the Roman Catholic Diocese in Jalandhar, Punjab, was arrested on Friday in Tripunithura after three days of questioning in the case where he has been accused of repeatedly raping the senior nun between 2014 to 2016. With inputs from agencies