Kuwait Times

India cardinal meets nun after rape, urges justice

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KOLKATA: The head of the Catholic church in India demanded swift justice yesterday for an elderly nun who was raped during a robbery at a convent, amid growing anger at the lack of arrests over the attack.

While police have taken several people in for questionin­g, no one has been formally arrested over the incident in West Bengal on Friday, which has again highlighte­d the frightenin­g levels of sexual violence in India.

After visiting the victim in hospital as well as the convent where she was attacked, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis voiced frustratio­n at the lack of progress in the investigat­ion.

“I would like to request the authoritie­s to ensure justice is done,” said Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

“The sisters have forgiven but justice (should) be made visible and such acts should not happen again,” he told reporters in the town of Ranaghat. “I understand that the process has begun... but I’d like to request the chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) to adopt a faster approach and ensure justice is meted out at the earliest.”

The nun, who is in her 70s, was attacked around midnight when a gang of robbers broke into the convent near Ranaghat and ransacked the premises. Although police have launched a gang-rape inquiry, officers say only one person sexually assaulted the nun, who needed surgery after the attack but is expected to be shortly released from hospital.

Detectives have released CCTV footage showing the faces of several members of the gang, fuelling frustratio­n that charges have not been forthcomin­g.

Protests were held in West Bengal and also in the capital New Delhi on Tuesday. Banerjee, who is the state’s top official, was confronted by hundreds of protesters late Monday when she visited the victim.

Deputy police superinten­dent Ajoy Prasad told AFP yesterday the nun had recorded her statement, and also confirmed that a hunt for multiple offenders was still under way.

“According to our preliminar­y investigat­ion there were about eight people who broke into the convent,”he told AFP.

Derek O’Brien, a lawmaker and one of Banerjee’s senior lieutenant­s, said everything possible was being done to arrest the perpetrato­rs. “We are in close touch with the nuns, all the church authoritie­s and a CID (top crime investigat­ion agency) probe was ordered five days back,” he told NDTV. “We are doing all it takes to arrest those people.”— AFP

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