tnn, Kolkata :
The city sessions court on Tuesday held a Bangladeshi national guilty of the March 2015 rape of a 71-year-old nun at a Ranaghat convent, an incident that had shaken the nation’s conscience.
Nazrul Islam alias Noju was also convicted for
robbery and criminal conspiracy with four others and a sixth person was held guilty of harbouring them. The court will read out the sentence for all six guilty on Wednesday, with the rapist staring at the rest of his life in jail.
Judge Kumkum Sinha, while pronouncing the verdict, termed the incident a blot on a state where Sister Nivedita and Mother Teresa had worked for people. “What happened to a senior nun here is a blot on Bengal’s legacy,” she observed before reading out the verdict.
“Your results will be out today, you must have had a sleepless night,” she said, directly addressing the accused in a court packed to the brim but silent, using the metaphor of the venue – a school – where the crime was committed. The judge then switched to Bengali to ensure the accused understood the enormity of their guilt and the verdict.
The six accused forced their way into the convent school in Nadia’s Ranaghat, more than 80 km from Kolkata, in the early hours of March 14, 2015, after overpowering the guard at gunpoint. They then climbed to the first floor and took whatever valuables they could find. Islam locked the 71-year-old nun in a room and then raped her when she tried to resist the looting.
The city sessions court on Tuesday held a Bangladeshi national guilty of the March 2015 rape of a 71-year-old nun at a Ranaghat convent, an incident that had shaken the nation’s conscience.
Nazrul Islam alias Noju was also convicted for
robbery and criminal conspiracy with four others and a sixth person was held guilty of harbouring them. The court will read out the sentence for all six guilty on Wednesday, with the rapist staring at the rest of his life in jail.
Judge Kumkum Sinha, while pronouncing the verdict, termed the incident a blot on a state where Sister Nivedita and Mother Teresa had worked for people. “What happened to a senior nun here is a blot on Bengal’s legacy,” she observed before reading out the verdict.
“Your results will be out today, you must have had a sleepless night,” she said, directly addressing the accused in a court packed to the brim but silent, using the metaphor of the venue – a school – where the crime was committed. The judge then switched to Bengali to ensure the accused understood the enormity of their guilt and the verdict.
The six accused forced their way into the convent school in Nadia’s Ranaghat, more than 80 km from Kolkata, in the early hours of March 14, 2015, after overpowering the guard at gunpoint. They then climbed to the first floor and took whatever valuables they could find. Islam locked the 71-year-old nun in a room and then raped her when she tried to resist the looting.
