Missionaries of Jesus continues to back rape accused Bishop, shames nun further

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 12: Days after saying that the nun, who had accused Jalandhar Bishop Fr Franco Mulakkal of raping her, had multiple affairs, the Missionaries of Jesus continued to slander the victim and said her "complaint is backed by lies and is fabricated".

The Missionaries of Jesus (MJ) is the congregation to which the survivor nun belongs to. In continuance with its slander campaign against rape victim Kerala nun, Missionaries of Jesus had earlier released a statement, based on the findings of an enquiry commission formed by it, targeting the nun and those supporting her, and calling the rape case a 'conspiracy' against the Bishop Franco Mulakkal.

The Missionaries of Jesus today came up with a statement to further shame the victim and maintained that nun's allegations were part of an agenda to destroy the image of the Jalandhar Bishop.

"For every rape victim, meeting the offender after the incident is like dying. How could the nun and the Bishop travel together over 20 times between 2014-16? Its clear that complaint is backed by lies and is fabricated," the Missionaries of Jesus statement said.

"No rape victim will want to see the place where she was raped, but this nun has shifted from room no.12 to 19, which is right next to room 20 where incident allegedly happened. She is still staying there," it added.

The Missionaries of Jesus had in its Tuesday press statement resorted to character assassination of the 44-year-old nun survivor. In its statement, the congregation alleged that the nun had affairs with two men and that she raised "malicious allegations" against the "innocent" bishop when he was planning to reprimand her.

On Monday, the Kerala High Court had directed the state government to inform it of the steps taken by the special investigation team probing the case of alleged rape of the nun by the Bishop. The Kerala police have asked Bishop Franco Mullakal to appear before the investigating team on September 19.