New Delhi - Indian police on Tuesday charged a Roman Catholic
bishop with repeatedly raping a nun in a convent, officials said.
Pope Francis has already suspended Bishop Franco Mulakkal from office
at the bishop's own request.
A nun, in her forties, accused him of sexually assaulting her over a
period of two years since May 2014.
Hari Sankar, police chief of Kerala state's Kotttayam district, said
the police charge sheet was filed in a trial court in the Pala area.
"He has been charged with rape, illegal confinement, unnatural sex
and intimidation under provisions of the Indian Penal Code," Sankar
said by phone.
Mulakkal, who faces a maximum punishment of life imprisonment, has
rejected the charges.
Nuns and activists held widespread protests after which police
arrested him last September. He was granted bail 30 days later.
"The filing of the charge sheet clears the decks for the trial to
begin," Sankar said.
The charge sheet includes statements from 83 witnesses, including
senior clergy and 25 nuns, said a statement from Save Our Sisters
Action Council, a group of members from India's Roman Catholic
Church.
The scandal is a major setback for Kerala's Catholic Church which has
been dealing with similar cases of sexual abuse in recent months.
The southern state has one of the largest Christian populations in
India.
About a fourth of India's Christians live in Kerala, where it is
believed that the apostle Saint Thomas established Christianity in AD
52.
Christians comprise about 2.3% of India's 1.3 billion
population, according to census data, and more than 70% of
them are Catholic.