THRISSUR, India, May 3, 01 (CWNews.com) - The Church in India has expressed "deep satisfaction" over the court judgment sentencing most of the accused in the 1998 gang rape of four nuns and looting of a remote convent near Jhabua in central Madhya Pradesh state.
"The belief of the people in the judicial system in the country has been vindicated by this verdict and it has increased the moral stature of the judicial system of our country," said Archbishop Oswald Gracias, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) on Wednesday. Describing the judgment as "a just verdict," CBCI has expressed "gratitude towards those who contributed immensely in bringing the culprits of this abominable crime to book."
The CBCI statement follows the Jhabua district court verdict of April 28 sentencing ten of the 25 men charged with rape and looting the convent to life imprisonment and seven others accused of looting only to two to three years of prison. Six defendants were acquitted.
Bishop George Anathil of Indore, in which Jhabua is located, said, "Justice has been done to the nuns who were victims of one of the most heinous crimes committed against women, especially against women dedicated to God, religion, and the service of society."
"In this context I would like to state once more that none of the accused is a Christian, though people of vested interests have been proclaiming time and again that half of the accused were Christian," said Bishop Anathil. He also said that the Christian community had consistently demanded a fair inquiry to bring those guilty of this horrible crime to justice, irrespective of their religious or other affiliations.
However, the local prelate has cautioned Christian institutions and Church workers in the area to take precautionary measures to avoid any further attacks by the Bhils (all the accused belong to the Bhil tribe), given the community's tendency to take revenge.