The Hindu : Front Page : Rape of nun confirmed

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Rape of nun confirmed

Prafulla Das and Parvathi Menon

Medical examination done at Baliguda government hospital

BHUBANESWAR: A medical examination conducted on the 28-year-old Catholic nun, who was sexually assaulted at K. Nuagaon in Kandhamal district on August 25, has confirmed she was raped.

“The medical examination report suggests that the nun was raped,” District Superintendent of Police Praveen Kumar told The Hindu over phone from Phulbani on Thursday.

The nun, along with a Catholic priest, was publicly beaten up by a mob and she was raped in a nearby building when anti-Christian violence was at its peak in Kandhamal in the wake of the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Lakshmanananda on August 23.

The medical examination was done at the Sub-Divisional government hospital at Baliguda.

The rape case, registered under 376 and other Sections of the IPC, is being investigated under the supervision of a Deputy Superintendent of Police. Senior police officials are also monitoring the progress of the investigation, Mr. Kumar said.

The Kandhamal police are also making efforts to contact the nun, who left the district along with the priest, Father Thomas Chellan, after filing her complaint with the Baliguda police.

No one has been arrested in the rape case so far. “The Baliguda police are trying to ascertain the identity of the accused persons,” Mr. Kumar said.

In her complaint, the nun said she was ill-treated by a group of 30 to 40 persons and one from among them raped her. “We are trying our best to solve the case,” he said.

Sister Nirmala, Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, who is here, on being informed of the result of the medical examination, told The Hindu: “I am satisfied that they have established this and hope the investigation will proceed.”

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