Bishop sent to Kerala jail, bail hearing on Thursday (Lead)

Kottayam (Kerala) : Bishop Franco Mulakkal, arrested on charges of raping a nun, was on Monday sentenced to two weeks judicial custody by a magisterial court while the Kerala High Court posted his bail plea for a Thursday hearing.

Judge M. Lekshmi of Pala Judicial Magisterial Court sent the bishop to the Pala sub-jail as the police did not seek his custody.

He was presented in the court after his two-day police custody ended on Monday.

Even as he was being produced before Judge Lekshmi, his counsel moved the Kerala High Court in Kochi seeking his bail.

When the High Court posted the matter for Thursday, the bishop was sent to the Pala sub-jail.

Mulakkal, who headed the Roman Catholic Diocese in Jalandhar, Punjab, became the first bishop in the country to be sent to jail on charges of raping a nun.

On Saturday, the magisterial court had rejected his bail and sent him to police custody. A medical check-up of the bishop was conducted at the Kottayam Police Club.

Mulakkal was arrested on September 21 after three days of questioning, he was accused by a nun of repeatedly raping her between 2014 and 2016.