The head of the Religious of Jesus and Mary congregation has welcomed a November 8 court decision to sentence a man to life imprisonment for the rape and attempted murder of a 71-year-old member in eastern India. It is a “red letter day” because “justice has been meted out and the culprits have been punished,” Sister Monica Joseph, superior general of the congregation, said during a press conference hours after a local court in Kolkata announced the punishment. Nazrul Islam, a 30-year-old Bangladeshi national, will spend the rest of his life in jail. Judge Kumkum Sinha said that what happened to the senior nun is a blot on Bengal’s legacy.
The judge also said that Bengal is also the land of Irish-Hindu social worker Sister Nivedita and St Mother Theresa.
Rome-based Sister Joseph said the nuns are “thankful to the police and the chief minister of Bengal for fast-tracking the trial and bringing the criminals to justice.” “The attack on the nun was inhuman and intolerable. The man who attacked the sister should have no place in our society,” Minoti Mondal, who in 2015 took part in a demonstration seeking justice for the nun, told ucanews.com.
