Hindustan Times via Getty Images Nuns hold placards during a protest demanding justice after an alleged sexual assault of a nun by a bishop, on September 2018 in Kochi, Kerala

Four nuns, who took part in a protest demanding the arrest of rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, have written to the Kerala chief minister, seeking his intervention to ensure that their transfer orders were not effected till the trial of the case was over. The letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was written after four of the five nuns, who led the agitation against the bishop last year, were directed to leave their convent in Kottayam district, in compliance with a transfer order issued by their congregation last year. The survivor nun has also written a separate letter to the chief minister, seeking his help in the matter. “Their aim is to single me out and to harass and torture me. My life will be in danger if such a situation arises,” she has alleged in her letter. Their congregation ― Missionaries of Jesus under the Jalandhar diocese of the Roman Catholic Church ― has directed the nuns to join their previously-assigned convents, according to the transfer orders issued between March and May 2018.

Bishop Franco is supported by some of the church authorities and his henchmen.They are making false propagation and character assassination against us. The aim of the present transfer orders is to pressure and threaten us as all of us are prominent witnesses in the case

The nuns ― Alphy, Anupama, Josephine, and Ancitta ― were served notice by the superior general of the congregation, Regina Kadamthottu, urging them to take up their assigned responsibilities as befitting members of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation. Sister Nina Rose, who also fought for justice for the survivor nun, has not been asked to leave the convent. While Sister Alphy has been transferred to a convent at Pakartala in Bihar, sister Ancitta and sister Josephine have been directed to join their convent in Lalmatia, Jharkhand. Sister Anupama has been asked to report at a convent in Punjab. In their letter to the chief minister, the nuns alleged that the transfer orders were aimed at splitting them and “to sabotage the case” against Bishop Franco Mulakkal. “Bishop Franco is supported by some of the church authorities and his henchmen. They are making false propagation and character assassination against us. “The aim of the present transfer orders is to pressure and threaten us as all of us are prominent witnesses in the case,” the four nuns alleged in the letter.

Sivaram V / Reuters Bishop Franco Mulakkal (2nd R), accused of raping a nun, is pictured outside a crime branch office on the outskirts of Kochi in September 2018