The International Business Times of India makes other claims against the bishop, reporting that other nuns have said the bishop encouraged them to file false charges against his accuser, that there are allegations of sexual abuse from several nuns, and that the bishop sent indecent messages to his accuser and others. However, the newspaper did not provide a source for those allegations.
A police official said the nun was standing by her accusations and would be subjected to medical tests to determine whether she had been sexually assaulted. Pope Benedict XVI had named Bishop Mulakkal to become Auxiliary Bishop of Delhi in 2009. In June 2013,
Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Jullundur. Fewer than one percent of the diocese's approximately 19.3 million people are Catholic, the website Catholic Hierarchy says.
The nun is part of the Kerala-based Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in union with Rome.
The audio recording purportedly of Cardinal Alencherry speaking with the nun follows other accusations against the cardinal.
In November 2017 the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly's canonical presbyteral council publicly accused Alencherry of involvement of dubious land deals. The council's representatives charged that the cardinal, two senior priests and a real estate agent sold land at undervalued prices, for a loss of $10 million. They accused the cardinal of bypassing the canonical body's authority.
In June the Vatican bypassed the Syro-Malabar Church's synod and suspended the administrative powers of the archdiocese's two auxiliary bishops, all archdiocesan offices, and the archdiocesan council. A Vatican letter said Cardinal Alencherry "should absolutely not be involved" in any decisions, UCA News reports.
It tasked the new administrator with auditing the archdiocese through an independent agency and sending the results to the Vatican confidentially. The new administrator must also determine the responsibility of those "who have wounded church unity with unfounded allegations, lacking the spirit of obedience and ecclesial sense."
Pope Francis appointed Bishop Jacob Manathodath of Palghat as the archdiocese's apostolic administrator.