Kochi: Amid tight security, the bishop accused of raping a nun turned up for questioning by police in Kerala on Wednesday.
The bishop of Jalandhar in India’s Punjab state, Franco Mulakkal, reported at 11am to the office of the police crime branch in Tripunithura, on the outskirts of Kochi.
Police arranged for medical facilities, too, as a precautionary measure ahead of the questioning.
Mulakkal is believed to have arrived in Kochi on Tuesday evening, and stayed with one of his relatives.
While the questioning proceeded in what was described as a hi-tech ambience, a protest march was held in Kochi, as a crowd demanded the arrest of the bishop.
The protesters, led by actor-director Joy Mathew, marched to the office of the inspector-general of police in Kochi.
The questioning comes nearly 80 days after a police investigation began into allegations by a nun attached to a convent in Kuravilangad, in Kottayam district, that she had been raped 13 times by Mulakkal between 2014 and 2016.
Mulakkal denies the allegations, but some colleagues of the nun have been on strike near the Kerala High Court building, demanding the arrest of the bishop. The strike entered the 12th day on Wednesday.
The nuns allege that there is collusion between police and those in power to delay the arrest of the bishop, a claim denied by both the police and the Left Democratic Front leaders.
On Tuesday, Mulakkal petitioned the High Court for anticipatory bail, but the court kept the matter for hearing on September 25.
