Karnataka - Mangalore

Nun, cook allegedly ill-treated by mob

MANGALORE: A 25-year-old nun was allegedly humiliated and ill-treated by members of a self-styled vigilante group on Monday. She is now recuperating in a seminary at an undisclosed location.

On Monday, the nun, who works in a missionary-run women’s hostel, accompanied the hostel’s 20-year-old cook to the bus-stop and left her there alone for some time. “When I returned, I saw that the cook was surrounded by a group of men,” she said. “They found out that she was a Hindu. This angered them and they started abusing her. They shouted at me saying that I was trying to convert my cook to Christianity.”

Incidentally, the cook began work at the hostel after her father expired over a year ago. “A policewoman arrived and asked us to accompany her to the police station,” said the nun. When the duo protested, the policewoman allegedly assaulted the cook. They were first taken to the Bunder police station where a group of Bajrang Dal activists allegedly presided over the ‘interrogation’ of the victims. “When I told the police that the Bajrang Dal activists should not be allowed to interfere, I was asked to keep quiet by the police officer,” she said. Later, the nun and her cook were sent to the Pandeshwar police station. “I was interrogated very rudely by one of the Bajrang Dal members there. The policeman just took down notes,” she alleged. It was only after a senior police officer arrived that the mob dispersed. The nun was set free and the cook was sent to the Government Sweekar Kendra. The police later sent her to Bhadravati against her wishes. Reacting to the incident, the Inspector-General of Police (Western Range) A.M. Prasad said that his department was “closely monitoring incidents with communal overtones”. However, he said that the people who ill-treated the nun could not be booked under the law. Since they alleged that the nun was involved in an act of forcible conversion, their legal locus standi was sound, he said.

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