A Kerala Police team left for Jalandhar on Friday to question a Catholic bishop accused of sexually abusing a nun.
The six-member team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police AT Subhash, will first stop in Delhi to question a city-based couple who raised a complaint against the nun, according to informed sources.
The team will then travel to the Punjab city where they will meet the accused, Franco Mulakkal, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar.
The nun alleged in June that Mulakkal sexually abused her several times at a convent in Kuruvalangadu near Kottayam between 2014 to 2016.
An FIR was registered against the bishop and a 114-page detailed statement was taken from the nun and other inmates of the convent.
Mulakkal however, denies any wrongdoing.
He told the Punjab media last month that he was waiting to meet the probe team formed after Kerala Police chief Loknath Behera reviewed the case.
Statements were taken from the head of the Syro-Malabar Church Cardinal Mar George Alencherry and also a few other former nuns who were residents at the convent.
On 19 July, an audio clip broadcast by a Malayalam television channel, purportedly revealed that the head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church had lied about not knowing that the nun had been sexually abused by the bishop.
The clip, aired by Mathrubhumi TV channel, pertaining to a talk between Cardinal Mar George Alencherry and the abused nun seemed to show that the former had knowledge that Franco Mulakkal had sexually abused her.
In the audio, Alencherry is heard telling the nun that if she "was abused then it's really bad”.
Meanwhile, the Church soon issued a statement, where it admitted the voice in the audio clip is that of the Cardinal, but claimed that the contents had been "twisted and interpreted wrongly".
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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