Kerala nun harassment case: Investigating officer picked for probe - Hindustan Times
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Kerala nun harassment case: Investigating officer picked for probe

ByHaidar Naqvi
Mar 25, 2021 04:29 PM IST

The probe was ordered after the church media commission said Bajrang Dal men confronted the nuns when they were on their way from Delhi to Odisha on the train on March 19 for Easter celebrations

A superintendent-rank officer will conduct an inquiry into the alleged harassment of Kerala nuns on a Jhansi-bound train, inspector general (railways) Satyendra Kumar Singh said on Thursday.

Representational Image.
Representational Image.

Officials said Somitra Yadav, the Lucknow-based investigating officer, has rushed to Jhansi for the probe. The probe was ordered after the church media commission said Bajrang Dal men confronted the nuns when they were on their way from Delhi to Odisha on the train on March 19 for Easter celebrations. The church said the nuns were verbally abused and the men tried to attack them after accusing them of taking the postulants accompanying them for religious conversion.

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Union home minister Amit Shah, who was in poll-bound Kerala on Wednesday, assured action over the harassment. The assurance came after Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that such incidents tarnish the image of the nation. Kerala goes to the polls on April 6.

Singh said the inquiry would deal with all the aspects of the case, including the mental trauma caused to the nuns and the postulants.

Also Read | Kerala church activist threatens nuns over Franco Mulakkal case, arrested

Government railway police (GRP) inspector (Jhansi) Sunil Singh said one Ajay Tiwari informed them about the alleged conversion and a group of Railway Protection Force personnel got onto the train at Jhansi.

A video purportedly showing the nuns being threatened and forced to prove their identity went viral on social media.

GRP officials said their local team got on to the train after getting information about the commotion on board. “On reaching there, it found the nuns and postulants had been taken off the train....” said an official. “...the nuns and postulants were brought to a GRP station at 8 pm...[the postulants said] they were Christians by birth,” he said. Their baptism certificates were also produced before police officers.

The nuns and the postulants remained in the police station for three hours before they were released. They spent the night in Jhansi before leaving for Odisha the next day on March 20.

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