Nun rape case trial from Wednesday, court bans media

The order was issued admitting a petition filed by the counsel for the bishop on February 22 requesting the court to ban media from reporting the court proceedings in the case.
Nun rape case trial from Wednesday, court bans media

KOTTAYAM: As the final trial in the rape case filed by a nun against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of the Latin Catholic diocese of Jalandhar is set to commence here on Wednesday, the Additional District and Sessions Court I has restrained the print and electronic media from reporting the proceedings.As per an order issued by Additional Sessions judge G Gopakumar, print and electronic media have been “restrained from publishing any matter relating to the trial and procedures of the case including discussions about the evidence tendered by the witnesses without the previous permission of the court”. Since the allegation of rape is involved, the trial has to be conducted in-camera. 

The order was issued admitting a petition filed by the counsel for the bishop on February 22 requesting the court to ban media from reporting the court proceedings in the case. The petitioner also alleged the prosecution and the media had connived with each other to malign the reputation of Bishop Franco and created a situation for media trial against the prelate.

The court issued the order taking into account the Supreme Court ruling which allows a court to ban the reporting of proceedings to safeguard the presumption of innocence. “Even before the commencement of the trial, strong public opinion is created against a person, which severely affects the presumption of innocence available to him. A criminal trial shall as far as possible be made free from all sources of pre-judging. 

Contempt of court: Petitioner’s request dismissed

Meanwhile, the court dismissed the request of the petitioner to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the prosecution for allegedly leaking a part of documents in the case to the media. The court said there was nothing on record to establish that it was the prosecution that shared the documents with the media.Ahead of commencing the trial, the court in the previous sitting had read out the charges against the bishop in the chargesheet submitted by the prosecution.

The cross examination will commence on Wednesday by examining the first witness and the victim nun. The prosecution has included 83 witnesses and 106 documents in the case.As per the prosecution case, Bishop Franco had raped and forced her into unnatural sex on many occasions between 2014 and 2017.

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