NEW DELHI/KOCHI: Indian police are investigating the death of a witness in a case involving the alleged rape of a nun by a Roman Catholic bishop, after the body of the witness, a priest who had given a statement to police against the bishop, was found on Monday.
Police said the body of Kuriakose Kattuthara, a Catholic priest who police said had spoken to them about Bishop Franco Mulakkal, was found in a room in the St. Mary’s Church in Dasuya town, around 180km from Chandigarh. He was under the Jalandhar diocese which is headed by Mulakkal.
“There were no blood marks on his body, and we are investigating the cause of death,” said Achhru Ram, a senior Punjab state police official in the Dasuya region.
Jose Kattuthara, the brother of the deceased, has complained to the police in Alappuzha in Kerala raising suspicion about the circumstances in which the priest was found dead.
The deceased priest’s cousin K. Johnny told the media in Kerala that he got a call from Punjab that Father Kuriakose Kattuthara was not responding to the knocks on his door.
“When they forced open the door, he was found dead,” Johnny said, adding that his cousin was not sick. However, he was suffering from lifestyle diseases. “Ever since he took a position against Bishop Mulakkal, he feared something bad might befall him,” said Johnny.
The deceased priest, in some interviews, had already expressed apprehension about his fate after openly supporting the victim nun and speaking against the bishop.
Mulakkal, bishop of the Diocese of Jalandhar in Punjab, was arrested in the southern state of Kerala last month on charges of raping the nun.
The Kerala nun had accused him of raping her repeatedly over a period of two years. Just before his arrest, the Vatican had accepted a request from the bishop to be temporarily relieved of his pastoral duties.
He is now on bail.
Neither Mulakkal nor his lawyers have made any public comment since his arrest though he has denied the charges in media interviews in the past.
He did not immediately respond to email requests seeking comment on Monday.
The diocese of Jalandhar said in a statement on its web site that Mulakkal had expressed sadness over “the sudden demise” of Kattuthara.
Kerala police had said earlier that Kattuthara was a prosecution witness who had given them a statement.
— with inputs from IANS
