Cardinal Gracias denounces acquittal of nun’s alleged rapists

Posted on January 9, 2017,  in UCANIndua

   He said the Church will appeal in a higher court.

(Note: Rape cases of the poor, marginalized and the young  are flooding our national and regional papers almost everyday that they have ceased to be  news items for readers.

               But raping of Religious Catholic sisters, young and old just to wreak vengeance or humiliate them in the public eye are rather rare. Some time ago the rape of an elderly sister in charge of a school at Ranaghat in Nadia District in West Bengal (two hours by local train from Kolkata) made a lot of public outcry.  In the present case it was a 48 year old nun who was victimized and Cardinal Gracias of Bombay has done well in being prompt in condemning it in no uncertain terms. The report seems to indicate sheer negligence on the part of the police.

             We hope and pray that  the case will be taken up in the appeal court and the culprit would be given due punishment. james kottoor, editor)

Mumbai: The acquittal of the alleged rapists of a Catholic nun in India’s Chhattisgarh state "is a grave injustice, not only for our consecrated, but also for all women who have suffered a similar trauma,” said Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay. 

                The accused, 19 year-old Dinesh Dhurv, and 25-year old Jitendra Pathak, were arrested on charges of tying up and gang raping a 48-year old nun of Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (SMMI) ‎at a medical center in the state capital, Raipur in June 2015. 

                  A fast-track released then on January 5 because of lack of evidence. Cardinal Gracias, president of the Asian Bishops Conferences believes investigations were compromised by the "halfhearted attitude of the police," who failed to protect the crime scene and did not collect the traces of the attackers from the victim's body, a news report in the Vatican Radio’s website.

               “This acquittal once again brings to our attention the problem of violence against women. It is a huge setback for all of us working for the rights and dignity of women, in particular victims of violence,” he said. He said the Church will appeal in a higher court.

                The state representatives of the Congress party and the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum have called the incident a "systematic attack against minorities in the State".

Since the beginning, the Christian leaders have complained about serious shortcomings in the conduct of enquiry by investigators, who had not collected blood, urine and other fluid samples to determine the hallucinogenic substance used to dope the missionary.(Source: Radio Vatican)