Raped Orissa Nun Finds No Violators in Police Line up

(January 7, 2009) A Catholic nun beaten and raped during violence right-wing Hindu groups orchestrated against Christians in Orissa, eastern India, identified two assailants in a police line up, but not the rapist. "I could identify the man who slapped me, pulled my sari and assaulted me," the nun told UCA News a day later, on December 6. "I could also identify another man in the crowd that assaulted her, but not the one who violated me," the nun said, declining to talk further. Father Thomas Chellan, who was attacked at the same time the 28-year-old nun was raped, also was present for the line up inside Choudwar Circle Jail in Cuttack, 1,700 kilometres southeast of New Delhi. About 100 media persons and a few onlookers crowded outside. Only the priest and raped nun were allowed to view the 90 men the police paraded, mixing jail inmates with the nine assault suspects they had arrested, a standard procedure.A magistrate present at the line up then called out to the two the nun had identified and asked if they were part of the mob. One denied his presence while the other kept quiet. Father Chellan could not identify any of the men as his attackers, even after a second round examining them. The Church now has to wait and see how the case progresses. Police may arrest more people and arrange one more line up. The nun was raped and the priest beaten in Kandhamal district on the second day of the seven-week reign of terror Hindu extremists unleashed on Christians in Orissa, especially in Kandhamal, where a Hindu leader was killed on Aug. 23. More than 60 people died because of the violence, which displaced about 50,000 people, also mostly Christians.