Orissa Government Speeds Up Action After Raped Nun's Press Meet

NEW DELHI (UCAN) - The Orissa state government has decided to expedite the case of a Catholic nun's rape during the recent anti-Christian violence in the eastern Indian state.

The move came after the nun addressed some 250 reporters and 30 television camera crews at a press conference held Oct. 24 in the main seminar hall of the Jesuit-managed Indian Social Institute in New Delhi.

The 28-year-old nun, who addressed the media with her face covered, was flanked by a senior nun and a woman lawyer. Photographers kept clicking at her face, which she kept turned toward the ground.

She fought tears while reading out a four-page handwritten statement recounting how Hindu fanatics attacked her. She said she had no faith in the Orissa police, who she alleged refused to help her but aided her attackers.

A day after the nun met the press, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik convened a meeting in the state capital and directed officials to speed up the case. The capital, Bhubaneswar, lies 1,745 kilometers southeast of New Delhi.

The nun was raped on Aug. 25, the day after Hindu fanatic groups began seven weeks of sustained violence against Christians in Orissa. The violence left at least 58 people dead.

Radical Hindu groups in the media accused the nun of not cooperating and hiding from the police. They also demanded that she marry her rapist.

The nun met the press three days after the Supreme Court rejected a Church petition that sought to have the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the premier federal investigation agency, probe the rape.

The Supreme Court asked the nun to cooperate with the state police investigation after the Orissa government said in an affidavit that the investigation into the case was progressing and that police had already arrested eight people.

The Orissa government responded to the nun's press conference saying there is no need for her to come to Orissa to identify her culprits from among the arrested suspects.

Patnaik told media personnel on Oct. 25 that his government could parade the accused anywhere in the country to help the nun identify her attackers. He said he has directed the state police to speed up the investigation.

Meanwhile, some women's groups have taken up the call for the CBI probe the case. The All India Democratic Women's Association said in a statement that they will send hundreds of telegrams to Patnaik to demand such a probe.

A Church official told UCA News the New Delhi press conference was "part of a well-thought-out strategy" to influence the government to order a CBI inquiry, because the Church has no faith in the Orissa government.

The raped nun's statement echoed this sentiment. She said police failed to protect her from the attackers and even were friendly with them.

Speaking to the press persons she recounted, "They threw me to the verandah on the way to the dining room, which was full of ashes and broken glass pieces. One of them tore my blouse and others my undergarments."

She paused, sobbed and wiped her tears before continuing to read: "They pulled out my sari and one of them stepped on my right hand and another on my left hand and then a third person raped me."

The nun said the police saw her being attacked and paraded half-naked but ignored her pleas for help.

Father Dominic Emmanuel, spokesperson of Delhi archdiocese and an organizer of the press conference, said Church people would leave matters to God if the government refuses to order a CBI probe even after the press conference