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Sister Anupama Kelamangalathuveliyil, one of the six nuns who led the movement against rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, has officially stepped away from nunhood. She has rejoined her family in Alappuzha, Kerala.
In 2018, a nun at the Missionaries of Jesus convent in Kottayam accused the Bishop, Franco Mulakkal, of raping her multiple times between 2014 to 2016. Despite facing immense pressure from within the Catholic church, five other nuns, including sister Anupama, stood by the survivor nun.
For three months after the case was registered, the Bishop, then the head of the Latin Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, was not arrested. It was only after the nuns, led by sister Anupama, staged a public sit-in protest in Kochi and public outrage grew that he was arrested for wrongful confinement, rape, unnatural sex, and criminal intimidation.
This was the first time that a group of nuns had challenged the power dynamics within the Catholic Church in India.
In 2019, four of the six nuns were issued transfer orders by the church. The nuns wrote to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking his intervention and a stay in their orders till the end of the trial. Despite facing backlash and ostracisation, the nuns refused to leave their convent and remained steadfast in their support to the survivor nun.
The survivor nun in a letter to the Chief Minister alleged that the church’s “aim is to single me out and to harass and torture me. My life will be in danger if such a situation arises.”
However, in 2022, citing lack of evidence, the Additional District and Sessions Court I in Kottayam acquitted Franco Mulakkal. Back then, sister Anupama told the media, “We will continue the fight until our sister gets justice. Even if we have to die, we will keep up the fight. Bishop Franco is a man with both money and muscle power.”
The survivor nun challenged the judgement and the appeal is now pending before the Kerala High Court.
Post verdict, the six nuns continued to live in the same convent and said they would persist in their advocacy. However, over the last three years, two other nuns – apart from sister Anupama – renounced nunhood and left the congregation.