Expressing concern over the delay in arrests in the rape of an elderly nun at Ranaghat in West Bengal’s Nadia district, Archbishop of Calcutta Thomas D’Souza said here on Monday that he was unhappy with the probe.
Stating that political parties were politicising the issue, Archbishop D’Souza told journalists, “We are unhappy with the probe. While the CID [Criminal Investigation Department] probe and the detention of eight people in this case is a welcome start, we are not happy yet because not much headway has been made in this regard. Normally the investigation, the administrative processes and the CID probe should lead to arrests. We want to ask the government why this [arrests] is not happening.”
He was talking to journalists on the sidelines of a silent march and candle light vigil called by the Archdiocese of Calcutta at Allen Park in Park Street to express solidarity with the sister superior of Ranaghat’s Convent of Jesus and Mary.
Adding that he was yet to visit Ranaghat, Archbishop D’Souza said that the nun was recuperating and had forgiven her sinners.
Expressing solidarity with the nun, the parents of Park Street gang-rape survivor Suzette Jordan here on Monday demanded speedy justice for the nun.
“We have come here to express solidarity. We will take Suzette’s fight forward,” Jordan’s Archbishop Peter Jordan said. Jordan died of meningoencephalitis here on March 13. Her case is undergoing trial in court since 2012.
Thousands of people assembled at Allen Park and sang hymns to express their support for the 71-year-old nun who was raped when she tried to resist a band of dacoits who had broken into the school.
School students, representatives from several churches across the State and the general public had assembled for the silent march and candle light vigil.
While the general consensus of those who participated in the solidarity meet was to seek speedy justice for the nun, many people admitted they felt threatened.
A retired couple from Barasat, in the North 24 Parganas district, Beverly Grosser and John Grosser alleged the ruling Trinamool Congress was more concerned about other minority groups than the Christian community. Concerned about the lack of arrests by the police even after three days since the incident and despite CCTV footage of the accused, Ms. Grosser said the law and order system in West Bengal was on the decline.
“[Chief Minister] Mamata Banerjee asking for a CID probe into this case shows that there has been a change of attitude by the State government, unlike in Suzette Jordan’s case where she was quick to dismiss the rape as ‘fabricated’,” Ms. Grosser said.
