Raipur: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Thursday visited a central Indian town where a Catholic nun was allegedly gang-raped 20 days ago.
The team from Delhi flew down to Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh state, as police there could not find the culprits involved in crime despite interrogating more than 300 suspects.
NHRC received on July 6 a complaint about police inaction on the June 20 incident. A four-member team, including two senior police officers, came to Raipur to probe the case.
Church groups allege that the 47-year-old nun was gang-raped around 2 am on June 20 at an infirmary in Pandri, a suburb in Raipur. The victim’s superior, who lives in a nearby convent, found her in semi-clad, unconscious state.
The nun, a member of the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, said she was gang-raped by two men who had their faces covered. The men had entered the clinic after cutting open its window grills.
However, the police are allegedly trying to prove it as a mere molestation case.
The NHRC team on Thursday interacted with the victim nun for more than six hours and inspected the spot of crime. Continuous updates were being taken from police officials for details.
The officials refused to divulge the details about their findings. NHRC would look into the case from new angles and would camp in Raipur for few days.
Meanwhile Christians and local people continue to protest the incident. The Church in Chhattisgarh closed all its schools in the state on July 1.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemned the act and called state-wide protest on July 13, if the police failed to arrest the culprits.
Meanwhile the nuns have closed the clinic.
A source in the congregation told Matters India on condition of anonymity that the victim has not recovered from the trauma and the regular police interrogation has added to her woes.
“Our sisters are around her all the time. We do not leave her alone as she is in trauma,” she added.
On the day of the incident the victim nun had slept in a room and two of her assistants in an adjacent room.
“The police are trying to find out how the sister and the girls did not hear the noise of cutting the grills. They are creating artificial noise now and asking them if they had heard such noise on that night. It sounds absurd but this is what they are doing,” the source said.
The administration has deputed two constables to be with the victim all the time. “When they quiz her, the police do not allow other sisters to be around. The sister feels more traumatized when she sees new police women as they rotate on duty.”
The victim related to her Sisters how she had tried to save herself when she saw the intruders. The assailants then forced three tablets into her mouth and kept it shut until she swallowed them. Thus she could not callout for help. She soon fell unconscious and did not know what had happened to her.
“But the police are giving a different version. When the person is in trauma what information can we elicit from her?” the source asked. The police have also checked all documents in the clinic, an act the nuns found irrelevant.
The source also pointed out that the assailant did not take away any cash although they had ransacked the cupboard. “What was their motive, we do not know,” she added.