The Additional District and Sessions Court I, Kottayam has cancelled the bail granted to the Bishop Franco Mulakkal, head of the Latin Catholic Church diocese of Jalandhar, who has been accused of rape reported the New Indian Express.
Sessions Judge G Gopakumar also issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Franco on Monday (13 July) for repeatedly failing to present himself (14 times) before the court since November last.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of the bail bond and a case be registered against the persons who stood as sureties. A show-cause notice will be issued for the surety amount of Rs 2 lakh against individuals who furnished the bond.
The influential bishop so far had failed to appear for the proceedings on more than 10 occasions. The last time he was in court was on November 30, 2019, to secure bail extension.
Franco’s reasons for not turning up for his court date appearance was on the grounds that his Jalandhar residence was situated in a COVID-19 containment zone. Also, the defence counsel said the bishop could not appear before the court since he is in quarantine.
According to his counsel, Bishop Franco had got himself an air ticket to fly down to Kerala but just before that he had met with his advocate Mandeep Singh Sachdev who later tested COVID positive, and hence Franco was asked to go in quarantine.
However, the precedence that the Catholic Bishop residence falls in the Civil Line area in Jalandhar falling within the containment zone turned out that it was not the case. This was proven by the Advocate Jithesh Babu, special public prosecutor(SPP), who submitted this before the court.
The SPP elucidated the court that the accused was deliberately trying to delay the legal proceedings and based on that the court issued a non-bailable warrant.
Franco Mulakkal is the first bishop in Indian Catholic history to be arrested for raping a nun multiple times between 2014 and 2016.