Kerala Police fail to take Bishop's statement in sex abuse case

A Kerala Police team -- probing the case relating to a Catholic Bishop accused of sexually abusing a nun -- arrived here on Saturday to record the statement of the Vatican representative, but they failed to as they had not taken prior permission for it.

The team is now expected to travel to Punjab in the coming days where they will meet the accused, Franco Mulakkal, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar.

According to the probe team, they will return on Monday to the Vatican Embassy as they have now applied for permission.

The six-member team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police A.T. Subhash, in their first stop in Delhi, was to take statement on Saturday from a city-based couple who raised a complaint against the nun.

The team met them, but they told the police that their complaint against the nun was based on a misunderstanding and now they have no complaints against her.

According to the police team, they will now meet the Ujjain Bishop of the Catholic dioceses, as the nun had informed this Bishop about the way she was subjected to abuse.

The nun alleged in June that Mulakkal sexually abused her several times at a convent in Kuruvalangadu near Kottayam between 2014 and 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.

Statements were also taken from the head of the Syro-Malabar Church Cardinal Mar George Alencherry and a few other former nuns who were residents at the convent.- IANS