Nun gangrape case: West Bengal police file chargesheet against five accused

Ranaghat: Police today submitted the charge sheet for the robbery at a convent school here and rape of a septuagenarian nun in March, which had created an outrage. The report was submitted to the GRO office of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Bishnu Baran Mondal of Ranaghat Court. Bijay Kumar Yadav, CID investigation officer, submitted the charge sheet against the five accused - Salim Sheikh, Gopal Sarkar, Khaleda Rahaman Mintoo, Milan Sarkar and Ohidul Seikh. All of them have been arrested. Najrul Islam alias Naju, another accused, was not included in the charge sheet as he is in police remand after being arrested from Sealdah railway station in Kolkata a few days ago. While Salim was arrested from Mumbai, Gopal was held from Habra in West Bengal, Mintoo from Bongaon and Milan and Ohidul from Sealdah. [caption id=“attachment_2308748” align=“alignleft” width=“300” class=" “]  Police officials escorted main accused Nazrul Islam to court on June 18th. AFP[/caption] The five have been charged under IPC sections 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy), 395 (punishment for dacoity), 397 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), 376 (sexual assault), 376 D (intercourse), 212 (harbouring offender), 216 A (penalty for harbouring robbers or dacoits) and 109 (punishment of abetment). Yadav has appealed that CID be allowed to submit a supplementary charge sheet later on. The incident had occured on March 13 and the charge sheet by CID was submitted on the 86th day after being handed the case. The nun has since left the state for an undisclosed destination. Later IGP-II, CID, Vineet Kumar Goyal told newsmen in Kolkata that investgations were underway on the role of Naju, the main accused in the case. “We are collecting more evidence against him. His name will come up in a supplementary charge sheet,” he said. Decribing the incident as related to “property-crime,” Goyal said “Gopal has been accused of harbouring criminals to commit the crime … It was a pre-planned crime with the intention of robbery. And the rape happened after there was resistance. One of the gang-members was a pervert… But the liability of the rape lies upon everybody,” he stated. Finger prints gathered from the place of crime have matched with three persons named in the charge sheet. All the five named in the charge sheet have admitted to their role in the crime and witnesses at the convent school in Ranaghat also have identified during a test identification parade, police said adding 70 witnesses had been interrogated by CID in its probe into the case. Goyal, however, ruled out any role in the crime by the security guard of the convent school. The gang, the CID IG said, has been involved in various robbery cases in the state including a healthcare centre at Balurghat, a failed attempt of robbing one electricity billing centre in Kharagpur and one in Malda. “All the accused are Bangladeshi nationals and have been involved in various crimes in the state of looting schools and homes,” he said. An elderly nun was allegedly gang-raped by dacoits at Gangnapur in Nadia district on March 14 early morning, after which West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered a CID probe into the incident. PTI