A nun who is a witness in the rape trial against former Jalandhar bishop Franco Mulakkal, has accused him of hugging and forcibly kissing her on the forehead in April 2017, The Indian Express reported on Friday, citing her statement. Mulakkal has been out on bail since October 2018.

In her statement, which is part of a chargesheet filed by the Kerala Police last year, the nun alleged that the incident took place in Mulakkal’s room at a convent at the end of a two-hour conversation. The police had filed the chargesheet in April 2019.

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The nun also alleged that during video chats in 2015, Mulakkal used lewd language with sexual undertones to address her. She said she did not have the courage to oppose him as he was the head of the diocese.

“I had to contact the bishop over the phone for some official needs since 2015,” the nun said in her statement, according to The New Indian Express. “But, shortly after the bishop started talks with sexual connotations over the phone, which was disgusting for me. He also talked about sexual acts and later started describing various body parts of me and the bishop.”

Defending the decision to not file a case in the incident, Kollam Rural police chief Hari Sankar said police made all efforts to file one but the nun was not willing to go ahead with a complaint. “Since the place of occurrence of the crime was in Kannur, we had passed the information to Kannur Police,” he said. “Though Kannur district police chief had approached her for registering a case, she was not interested in prosecution.”

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The police had filed a case against Mulakkal in June 2018 after a nun in the Missionaries of Jesus congregation filed a complaint accusing him of raping her 13 times between 2014 and 2016 in Kottayam. The congregation is based in Punjab’s Jalandhar district but it runs two convents in Kerala – in Kottayam and Kannur. The alleged abuse took place in Kottayam.

Mulakkal, who was arrested in September 2018, has repeatedly denied the charges and accused the nun of taking revenge on him for ordering an inquiry into a complaint against her. He was removed as the bishop after the allegations.