Bengal gang rape: Bishops seek early action from Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata, March 18: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Wednesday requested Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to hasten arrests of those who gang raped a 71-year-old nun in West Bengal's Nadia district that sent shockwaves across the country and beyond.

The nun was brutalised by a gang of bandits inside the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Ranaghat, some 80 km from Kolkata, on Saturday.

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, who heads the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, visited Ranaghat to meet the brutalised nun on Wednesday.

"I will talk to her (chief minister) on behalf of the Church of India today (Wednesday). What I have understood is that the process has begun to find out the culprits. But we would like to request the chief minister to make a fast approach and to see that justice is done at the earliest," Cleemis told media persons in Ranaghat.

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis visited Ranaghat to meet the nun

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, has expressed concern over the Ranaghat gang rape as well as the vandalisation of a church in Haryana, and sought reports on these incidents from state governments.

While the police have detained 10 people, their failure to arrest the attackers till now has created a furore among Ranaghat locals, who on Monday blocked the convoy of Banerjee. She had gone there to meet the survivor, now admitted to a hospital.

The West Bengal Human Rights Commission has sought a report from the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

IANS