BHUBANESWAR, India (CNS) Local police have filed charges against 10 men for the rape of a Catholic nun during the anti-Christian riots in Orissa state in August, but Church people said they expect more charges. The Asian Church news agency UCA News reported that charges were filed against the men Jan. 29.
Father Alphonse Baliarsingh, vicar general of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Archdiocese, said Jan. 30 that "at least some justice can be expected."
But he noted that the police have "not yet arrested the main culprit," the one who actually raped the nun Aug. 25, a day after Hindu extremists unleashed a wave of terror against Orissa Christians that lasted seven weeks. The violence claimed 60 lives and displaced 50,000 people, mostly Christians.
Father Baliarsingh said the police have made assurances they would arrest a few more people involved in the crime against the 28-year-old nun.
"We expect the main culprit (to be) arrested soon," the priest said.
Manas Ranjan Singh, one of the nun’s lawyers, declined to comment on the charge sheet, since the lawyers "have not seen" the file. "We have applied for a copy. Only after studying it can we comment on the merit of it," he said Jan. 30.
However, he described the filing of charges as "positive" and "a logical step."
Singh said the 10 men, arrested four months ago, were among about 90 people in a lineup that police arranged Dec. 5 for the nun to identify her violators. The nun could identify only two among them but did not see the rapist, UCA News reported.
The men reportedly were charged with gang rape, he said, noting that Indian law considers a person abetting rape just as culpable as the one committing the crime.
The nun’s case made national headlines after she addressed a press conference in New Delhi in late October and said she had no faith in the Orissa police investigation, since police did not help her when she was attacked.
A nun working in Orissa said the police have "not yet arrested the real culprits" in the case. "They may not do it at all because people in authority are supporting" such crimes against Christians, she said.
Montfort Brother Thomas Thannickal, who accompanied the nun to the police lineup, shared similar sentiments, saying the charges aim to show "the police are working and the issue is not buried."
"Nothing much can be expected now. All these will be forgotten once the elections are over" in a few months, Brother Thannickal said. Federal parliamentary elections are scheduled for April and a state election is scheduled for May, UCA News reported.
Orissa is ruled by a coalition of a regional party and the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party. The party is considered the political wing of groups trying to make India a Hindu theocracy.
The Orissa government had promised to contain the anti-Christian violence soon after it began Aug. 24, but several groups have accused it of helping fanatics by restraining security forces.
