The Kerala police on Wednesday concluded the interrogation of rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal for the day. The grilling of the bishop will continue at 11am on Thursday, Kottayam district police chief Hari Sankar said.
Deputy Superintendent of Police K. Subhash, who heads the Special Investigation Team, questioned the 54-year-old clergyman at the Crime Branch office for seven hours.
"The first phase of interrogation is over. He has been asked to be present tomorrow morning at 11am for continued interrogation. He has agreed to it," Sankar said, after marathon questioning of the priest.
Stating that the accused was cooperating with the investigation, the officer said a decision on the arrest would be taken after the interrogation was over.
When asked about the "contradictions" in the statements of the alleged victim, the witnesses and Mulakkal, as claimed by police earlier, Sankar said,"That's the purpose of interrogation. We will reflect on it after it is over."
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The bishop told the police in Kochi that he was not at the Kuravilangad convent in Kottayam on those days when the nun said he had sexually assaulted her, and alleged a conspiracy behind the case.
Though the bishop was asked to appear before the cops at 10am, he reached the Crime Branch office at Thrippunithura near Kochi only by 11am on Wednesday.
Ahead of the questioning, top police officers—Inspector General Vijay Sakhre, Hari Sankar and his deputy Subhash—held a meeting at the IG office in Kochi.
The bishop was accompanied by his counsel and a few priests. The bishop, who arrived in Kochi Monday evening, held discussions with his lawyers, sources said.
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He then left for his relative's house in Thrissur. If the authorities face any inconvenience in questioning the bishop at Thrippunithura, the cops had also made alternate arrangements at Vaikom and Kottayam to carry out the interrogation. Bishop's medical examination will be held at the Kottayam Medical College Hospital.
This is the second time that the bishop is being grilled.
A team, headed by Vaikom DySP Subhash, had grilled the clergyman for nine hours at the Bishop House in Jalandhar on August 15.
The police had earlier said there were a 'lot of contradictions' in the statements given by the victim nun, witnesses and the bishop. The cops will simultaneously investigate all statements given during the grilling.
Mulakkal will not be allowed to return to Jalandhar until the completion of questioning.
Protest against bishop enters 12th day
The protest by Catholic reformist forums and some nuns demanding action against Mulakkal entered day 12 on Wednesday.
Vanchi Square, the protest venue, near Kerala High Court in Kochi is alive with a steady stream of people from different walks of life, including activists, the common man and regular churchgoers dropping in to express their solidarity.
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A Christian priest, whose Save Our Sisters (SOS) Action Council has emerged as a platform for various organisations and people who had initially launched the agitation, said the protest was at a crucial stage and insisted that the bishop should be arrested to ensure justice to the survivor nun.
"It is in a crucial stage now. The bishop has appeared before the investigation... he should be arrested. If he is not arrested, justice will not be done in the case," said Fr Augustine Vattoli, serving under the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, at the protest venue.
The campaign by the nuns has "gone deeper and wider realms" of the Church and the Kerala society, 47-year-old Vattoli claimed. The protesting nuns also expressed hope that the police probing the case would arrest the bishop. "We strongly believe that there is sufficient evidence against Bishop Franco and he will be arrested. It may take some time, but his arrest is inevitable," a nun said. She said the protest will continue till he was arrested.
Nun's sister hospitalised
Meanwhile, the nun's sister, who had been on a hunger strike, was moved to a hospital on Wednesday after her health condition deteriorated. She had joined a protest by a group of nuns seeking the bishop's arrest.
(with PTI and Onmanorama inputs)