Rape-accused former Bishop of Jalandhar Franco Mulakkal (File Photo) | Photo Credit: BCCL

Thiruvananthapuram: In the light of the Save our Sisters (SOS) Action Council declaring their decision to initiate an indefinite agitation in Kochi over the police delay in filing the charge sheet against rape-accused former Bishop of Jalandhar Franco Mulakkal, the deputy general of police (DGP) Loknath Behera on Saturday gave his nod to the charge sheet. A special investigative team (SIT) led by the Kottayam deputy superintendent of police (DySP) will file the charge sheet in the Kerala High Court on Tuesday.

Earlier this week, the DySP of Vaikom had told Mirror Now that the delay by investigators in filing the charge sheet was a result of the special prosecutor's office scrutinizing the charge sheet. Vaikom DySP Suneesh Babu had also asserted that the charge sheet would be filed in the HC within a week's time.

As per the latest reports, the nuns demanding justice for the complainant nun have postponed their indefinite agitation to one week from now. Earlier this year, the nuns had voiced concern for their lives, claiming that they were being pressurised by the Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) to refrain from giving public statements against the rape-accused Bishop or demanding his immediate arrest. The nuns had also claimed that they were being targeted for expressing solidarity with the complainant nun.

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The former bishop of Jalandhar, Franco Mulakkal was accused by a nun of confining her to a convent in Kerala's Kuravilangad and raping her on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2016. An SIT formed to probe the allegations found Mulakkal guilty on the basis of circumstantial evidence. The bishop was sent to the Pala sub-jail where he spent almost a month before being granted conditional bail by the Kerala HC on the condition that he would not assert his clout to influence the investigation into the allegations against him.