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BHUBANESWAR/NEW DELHI: Yet another shameful chapter in sectarian strife was added when the Orissa government confirmed on Friday that a 29-year-old Catholic nun was raped by a fanatical Hindu gang on August 25, while the police ignored her pleas for help and looked the other way.


After dragging its feet for 38 days, the state government finally woke up to media reports and outrage across the country and abroad to arrest four suspects and suspend the inspector in-charge of Baliguda police station in Kandhamal, where the rape took place.

Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik, who has been keeping a remarkably low profile despite the state being rocked by anti-Christian violence for six weeks now, on Friday describing the rape as a ''shameful'' and ''savage'' act and promising ''stringent action'' against the culprits. But he parried questions on the inordinate delay in the case, saying ''action is being taken''.








In New Delhi, PM Manmohan Singh told his colleagues at a cabinet meeting that these incidents have tarred India's image abroad. He directed the Union home ministry to submit a report that will be discussed by the cabinet next week. Several other ministers spoke up, criticizing the Orissa government, although none of them has yet sought the government's sack.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil has shot off a letter to Patnaik asking him to do more to control the violence. He pointed out that despite a 5,000-strong central force presence in Orissa, violence has not been contained in Kandhamal. An MI-17 helicopter was also in Bhubaneswar from August 31, a week after violence began, to September 11, but was hardly used.

Orissa police claimed on Friday they ''received'' the medical report — which found injuries to the victim's private parts and pointed to sexual assault — only on October 1. But doctors have a different story.
Dr Sangeeta Mishra, who along with Dr Smita Marandi, performed the examination at Baliguda government hospital on the night of the incident, have a different story.

''We got the requisition for medical examination of the victim at 8.45pm on August 25 and began the examination half an hour later. We did a thorough check and collected samples. Our report was ready within 72 hours, but despite our intimation, police collected it only on October 1,'' Mishra told TOI, adding that samples had been sent for forensic tests as well.

The traumatised victim is untraceable. Neither the administration nor Christian leaders want to reveal anything about her whereabouts. Even her family members say they don't know where she is. ''We are very sad. We have been told about the incident, but have not yet managed to speak to her. We don't know where she is,'' her younger brother told TOI over telephone from his village.

It was on August 25, around 1pm, that an enraged mob of over 2,000 people, shouting ''Bharat Mata ki jai'', dragged the nun, who worked at Divyajyoti Pastoral Centre at Kanjamendi village in K Nuagaon, and Father Thomas Chellan (55) out of a house they were hiding in. The duo were brutally beaten up. The nun was taken to a deserted building and allegedly raped.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Medical_report_says_nun_raped_probe_ordered/articleshow/3556112.cms

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