Bengal nun rape case: 1 found guilty of raping, 5 convicted for robbery, punishment to be announced tomorrow

After a year-long hearing, Additional District and Sessions Judge of City Sessions Court (Bankshall Court) Kumkum Sinha confirmed that the senior nun was raped by one person, not gang-raped.

Calling the incident very shameful, the judge convicted one accused, Nazrul Islam alias Nazu, for raping the nun and five others, Milan Kumar Sarkar, Ohidul Islam alias Babu, Mohammad Selim Sheikh, Khaledar Rahman and Gopal Sarkar, for robbery.

One of them, Gopal Sarkar, was also convicted for plotting the robbery.

However, the quantum of punishment in the case will be announced on Wednesday (Nov 8).

On the wee hours of March 13 in 2015, a gang of seven armed miscreants stormed Convent of Jesus and Mary High School in Ranaghat's Don Bosco Para area.

Besides robbing the school, one of the dacoits raped 72-year-old Mother Superior of the convent school.

Local police had started investigation into the matter and later West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) took over the probe.

Examining school's CCTV footage, CID identified seven miscreants and arrested six of them, including four Bangladesh nationals, while another person, Mintu alias Farukh, is still absconding.

Three months after the incident, on June 20 in 2015, the CID filed a 995-page charge-sheet before Ranaghat Sub-Divisional Court, accusing five persons, and three months later, the state probe agency submitted a supplementary charge-sheet of 145 pages, framing another man.

Later the case was shifted to City Session Court (Bankshall Court) in Kolkata from Ranaghat Sub-Divisional court.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha, Image from archive)