PC George, an Independent MLA from Kerala, is back to doing what he does best — hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons.

This time around, he questioned the morals of a Catholic nun who has accused Jalandhar bishop Franco Mulakkal of raping her 13 times.

“It appears she enjoyed it 12 times over but suddenly found it was rape the 13th time,” George was quoted by news agencies as saying.

“Why didn’t she complain the first time?” the legislator asked a day after several members of a nunnery in central Kerala took to the streets, protesting the delay in action against the bishop. According to the members of the nunnery, their distraught colleague went on to cancel a press meet scheduled for Sunday.

In her police complaint, the nun had alleged that Mulakkal had sexually abused after summoning her on the pretext of discussing an important issue in 2014. He repeated the offence 12 more times in the next two years, she alleged. She said she had complained earlier because she lacked the courage to take on the clergy represented by the bishop.

Calling the nun “the real troublemaker”, George demanded that the bishop be jailed if the allegations were proven right. While he did not intend to defend the bishop, he wanted to speak out against the “misuse of the sexual abuse laws by women to frame people of repute”, he added.

Criticising his statement, Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, said such remarks were shameful.

The Commission would be writing to Loknath Behera, DGP of Kerala, to take action against such “wayward lawmakers”, Sharma said.

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