KOCHI: Bishop Franco Mulakkal , accused of raping a nun, was arrested late on Friday after 22 hours of questioning that lasted for over three days at a special interrogation centre in Tripunithura."It has been decided to register the arrest of the bishop. We reached a conclusion that the complaints against the bishop are reasonably true. Interrogation is over. It has been found that the bishop has committed the offence. Other procedures will follow," said Kottayam SP Hari Sankar.The police move which concluded three days of high drama, also made the Franco arguably the first bishop to be arrested for sexual abuse in India.The marathon questioning also became a rarity as the investigation team gave maximum time for the bishop to explain his version considering his position and the graveness of the charges.The arrest happened 85 days after an FIR was registered to name the bishop as accused on June 28 at Kuravilangad police station. The nun had given her statement and said that the bishop sexually abused her multiple times.The bishop had raised several counter-arguments including the one that the nun's complaint was in retaliation to him giving permission for an inquiry against her.The interrogation had got underway on the third day at the special interrogation centre at Tripunithura around 10.45am.The arrest was anticipated as the investigation team head Hari Sanker, Superintendent of Police, Kottayam, had told the media on Thursday night that the investigation will be wrapped up on Friday.On Thursday night, three police teams were sent out to various undisclosed places to verify the details revealed by the bishop during the course of the investigation. With probe team visiting St Francis Mission Home where the crime happened in the morning and one other location reportedly in Kozhikode as part of verification eventually leading to the arrest on Friday evening.By around 3 pm, people started gathering near the questioning facility even as additional police personnel were deployed in the area right from the morning.Some television channels flashed the news that police had recorded the arrest of the bishop as early as 1.30pm leading to the curious local crowd heading for the location. The official confirmation, however, came much later at around 7.45pm when the Kottayam SP announced the same.The anticipatory bail plea of the bishop is set to come up before the high court on September 25. The arrest, four days ahead of the same was after police made legal consultations in this regard.The interrogation was led by K Subhash, DSP, Vaikom and Kottayam SP Hari Sankar. The DSP had first interrogated the bishop for over nine hours in Jalandhar on August 13.On Thursday, in a significant move, the Vatican had divested the bishop of his administrative powers of the diocese of Jalandhar.On Wednesday, he was grilled for over seven hours and on Thursday for about eight hours. The arrest on Friday was after over seven hours of interrogation.The case against the bishop was registered after the nun met the police chief with a complaint that the bishop had raped her multiple times at the Kuravilangad Mission Home, between May 2014 and September 2016.The nun’s plaint was five days after the Kuravilangad police registered a case against the brother of the nun on a petition filed on behalf of the bishop by the PRO of the Jalandhar diocese.The investigation which was moving at a slow pace received a sudden boost when five nuns launched a sit-in protest in Kochi on September 8. The protest then received massive support with an umbrella organisation being formed titles Save Sisters Action Council.

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