Kerala CM accuses Centre of vindictive attitude over Wayanad relief
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday criticized the Central government for allegedly denying financial relief for the rehabilitation of Wayanad landslide survivors.
Days after nuns who protested against rape-accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal requested the Kerala Chief Minister to intervene in a transfer matter, Save our Sisters (SOS), a group of organisations that spearheaded the protests, wrote to Pinarayi Vijayan reiterating the same demand.
In their letter, the group said that the lives of the nuns will be in danger if they are transferred.
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“The rape survivor and the other five nuns who supported her in the case against Bishop Franco Mulakkal are facing imminent threat of being separated and sent away from Kerala by the Missionaries of Jesus,” the SOS wrote.
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In the letter, which ANI accessed, the SOS said, “We urge government to ensure their lives are not endangered by enforcing transfer order.”
“We call upon govt to initiate immediate action to forestall the move to remove them, from their present convent where govt is giving protection, till trial is completed,” the group demanded.
The nuns from the Kuravilangad convent who demanded Mulakkal’s arrest were transferred to four different places vide a transfer order issued on 16 January.
On 19 January, the nuns wrote to Vijayan requesting him to intervene.
In their letter to the CM, the nuns reportedly said that the Bishop is very powerful and can sabotage the case. They also asked the CM to ensure that they live in the present convent and are not transferred.
Requesting Vijayan to see that the transfer orders were revoked, the nuns stated that their only agenda is to remain with the victim, who was yet to receive any sort of support from the Church and was only banking on them.
Read More: Kerala nuns request CM Vijayan to intervene in transfer matter
They pointed out that the transfers were issued as they were all witnesses in the case against Bishop Mulakkal, the then Roman Catholic Diocese head in Paunjab’s Jalandhar, who is accused of raping a nun repeatedly between 2014 and 2016.
The nuns, who are attached to the Mother Superior of the Missionaries of Jesus, have refused to accept the transfer orders and said they would remain in the convent at Kottayam, where they are currently posted.
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