A court in Chhattisgarh has acquitted two young men accused of the rape of a Catholic nun
for "lack of evidence".
The religious sister was drugged and abused
during the night between 19 and 20 June 2015 at Christ Sahaya Kendra
(Christ Support Centre ) of Raipur.
The 19 year old and 25 year old
Dinesh Dhurv Jitendra Pathak were released by the court because Judge
Nidhi Sharma said not enough evidence was collected against them.
In all likelihood the investigations were compromised beyond repair
by police, who after the discovery of the nun did not close off the
crime area and did not carry out a proper forensic investigation, such
as lifting evidence of the attackers from the victim's body.
The terrible
religious, now 48, who belongs to the Salesian Missionaries of Mary
Immaculate (SMMI), courageously told her terrible story.
Two masked men broke into her room at the medical center at around 1: 30
am. When she asked them if they wanted money, they replied: "We want
something more."
At that point one of them blocked her, while the other
forced her to ingest the drugs and gagged her with a rag.
Then the
attackers tied her to the bed with her sari and used a scarf to tie her
hands, before taking turns to rape her.
The nun, originally from Kerala, was alone at the time of the attack.
She was found the next day in an unconscious state by her superior,
worried about not having received any reply to her calls.
The state representatives of Congress and the Chhattisgarh Christian
Forum have called the incident a "systematic attack against minorities
in the State".
For its part, the Indian Bishops' Conference (CBCI) has
reported that such incidents raise serious questions about the safety
and protection of minorities in India.
Since the beginning, the Christian leaders have complained about serious shortcomings in the conduct of investigations by the investigators,
who had not collected blood, urine and other fluid samples to determine
the hallucinogenic substance used to dope the missionary.
Following the indignation of the entire Catholic community and the
protests of the opposition parties, police questioned more than 200
people, to narrow the field to two accused, who are now once again free
and at large.