Kolkata: A day after the West Bengal police published snapshots of four of the culprits obtained from CCTV footage of the alleged gang-rape of a 71-year-old nun in a convent school in Nadia district, promising strict action, West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi, Sunday, sought public help to arrest the culprits.
"The state government will take strict action in this matter," Tripathi told reporters here.
He further said, "The administration will surely apprehend the culprits and punish them. I feel the people should also come forward to help nab the culprits."
The Nadia Superintendent of Police Arnab Ghosh had also announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh would to any individual providing credible information leading to the arrest of the accused. Later, cops detained eight persons today in connection with the case for questioning and extensive searches were also being conducted across the district.
Herod Mullick, state working president of the Bangiya Christiya Pariseba, a united state forum of all denominational Christians, said at Gangnapur today that the motive of the culprits was not that of robbery alone, it was an attack on the minority community.
Strongly condemning the incident, Mullick said attacks against Christians have been increasing in different parts of the state.
He alos claimed that the nun had sought police protection after she got life threats.
Meanwhile, Congress leader PC Chacko also condemned the alleged gang-rape case and sought "extreme punishment" for the culprits.
"Extreme punishment should be awarded to the culprits. The governments (in the state and at the Centre) are not acting according to the gravity of the situation....Their lapses are more evident (in this case)...That is the most unfortunate part of it," he told reporters here, PTI reported.
He said the anti-socials elements responsible for this should be urgently apprehended, an enquiry carried out "without any loss of time" and punishment awarded expeditiously.
In an incident that had caused revulsion in the state and beyond, the nun was brutalized by a gang of bandits inside the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Ranaghat, some 80 km from Kolkata, yesterday.
A CID probe has been ordered in the incident but no one has yet been arrested. The gang also decamped with Rs 12 lakh kept in the almirah after the crime.
(With Agency inputs)
