A Kerala court Saturday extended the judicial custody of Bishop Franco Mulakkal for 14 days till October 20. He was produced before the Pala Judicial Magistrate Court in Kottayam district this morning as his judicial custody ended today. Mulakkal, who was arrested over allegations of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a nun, has been lodged in a sub-jail in Pala since September 24. The Bishop's lawyers, meanwhile, are were planning to approach the Kerala High Court once again to seek bail, news agency PTI reported. The HC had rejected his application for bail last Wednesday citing prima-facie evidence in the case to deny him bail. The court had also accepted the prosecution’s stand that giving the accused bail would hamper the course of the investigation. Mulakkal, the first Bishop in the country to be arrested on rape charges, was arrested following three days of intense questioning in September. The police had said the investigation in the case was progressing even after the arrest of the accused. In her complaint to the Kottayam Police in June, the nun had alleged that Bishop Mulakkal had raped her at a guest house in Kuravilangad in May, 2014 and subsequently, sexually exploited her on several occasions. The rape survivor had alleged in her complaint that the bishop had sexually assaulted her 13 times over a period of two years from May 5, 2014. She belonged to the Missionaries of Jesus order of the Catholic Church. The arrest of the accused came after intense political pressure and a month-long protest in Kochi by five nuns of the order. However, the bishop has denied the charges. Mulakkal’s lawyers had argued in the HC that the case against him is fabricated and is retaliatory in nature for the action he took against the nun on a separate complaint.
