“I want people to know that we are still alive, we are still here…our struggle is still continuing,” said sister Ranit in an interview to Asianet News, published on January 10, 2026.
This is the first time in nine years that sister Ranit has publicly revealed her identity.
In 2018, sister Ranit, a senior nun living at the St Francis Mission Home in Kuravilangadu, Kerala, accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of raping her multiple times. Franco was then the Bishop of the Jalandhar diocese.
The case was unprecedented. Never before in India had a nun filed a formal police complaint against a sitting bishop for sexual violence.
In January 2022, a trial court acquitted Franco. In 2023, he met the late Pope Francis and resigned from his position. Franco now holds the title of Bishop Emeritus of Jalandhar, an honorary distinction accorded to retired bishops in recognition of their past service.
Meanwhile, sister Ranit and the nuns who stood by her were condemned to a life of social isolation and financial deprivation. TNM accessed 33 letters exchanged between Ruth and various authorities within the Catholic Church between March 2022 and June 2025, including those addressed to the late Pope Francis. In them, she sought help for basic medical and living expenses.
In August 2025, after months of speaking and spending time with sister Ranit, TNM published a longform report titled ‘Against Gods Men: A nun, A bishop and the trial of India’s Catholic Church.’ In this ten-chapter story, we pieced together her life post the verdict, the systemic efforts to silence her, and the price she continues to pay for defying the patriarchal powers within the Catholic Church.
Up until then, sister Ranit had never interacted with the media. She had requested that we keep her identity concealed.
In her interviews with Asianet and TNM, she emphasised that she intends to continue living in the convent as a nun. “I have seen the way society treats women who leave the convent, the way their families are mocked,” she told the channel.
TNM also interviewed Franco Mulakkal, who described himself as “a diamond.” “You can put me in dirty water or on Queen Victoria’s crown, my value doesn’t change,” he said.
On December 8, 2025, a trial court in Kerala pronounced the verdict in the 2017 actor assault case, acquitting actor Dileepm who had been accused of masterminding the crime.
For Ranit, who had long stayed away from public view, that verdict became a turning point.
“The verdict really hurt me. I was transported to the day when my own verdict came. She too did not get justice,” she told Asianet News. “That’s why I have decided to come out in public now.”
In 2022, months after Franco’s acquittal, Ranit filed an appeal before the Kerala High Court. In the four years since, her case has not been listed for a single hearing.
“I have decided to see this case through the High Court and the Supreme Court. Until I get a verdict from the Supreme Court, I will not rest. I will continue to fight for my justice,” she said.
Franco currently lives about 40 minutes away from Ranit’s convent, at a retreat centre where he conducts prayers and offers counseling to women and children.
During his conversation with TNM, Franco denied all allegations of rape and went further, questioned whether women should even be allowed to exist.
“Should women be allowed to even exist? Tell me, should they?” he asked, leaning forward in his seat.
He used the phrase “righteous rapist” to argue that a man who rapes would inevitably “kill” his victim, because, under the law, a woman’s testimony is paramount. If a survivor lives to tell her story, he claimed, the accused man “cannot defend himself.”
Hence, he said, all the rapes reported by women who are alive are “false.”
Note: TNM has used the survivor’s name with her permission.