Father blames convent head for nun’s suicide

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A nun who committed suicide in a Kerala convent was tortured by her superior “mentally and physically”, her father alleged here yesterday.
“She had to do all the chores in the convent like cleaning toilets and washing dishes before leaving for the school (where she teaches) and after coming back. And at night the senior sister would forcibly sleep with her,” Pappachan, a cook who works at the Bishop’s house in Kollam, said.

His daughter Anupa Mary, 22, who joined the St Mary’s Convent at Pallithottam two months back, committed suicide on Monday leaving a note alleging she was unable to bear the harassment by the nunnery’s head.

“She had confided this to her mother and sister and threatened to commit suicide. But I came to know about it only after her death,” Pappachan told reporters at the Medical College hospital here where he arrived with his daughter’s body for autopsy.
Mary, the second of six children of Pappachan and Bijiamma was found hanging in the bedroom of the convent. A member of the Vimala Hrudaya Franciscan congregation, she had been serving at another convent until recently.

According to the police, the suicide note expresses her difficulty to adjust with the new environment. She had also recorded her “disagreement” with the Mother Superior of the convent.

M R Ajithkumar, superintendent of police, Kollam said that investigations have commenced and all aspects would be probed.

“This allegation I have heard only today and on television. Yesterday when we took the statement from Pappachan, he did not level this allegation. Anyway now that he has publicly aired this, we will take his statement again. I have asked the investigation officers to look into all aspects. Now we are waiting for the post-mortem report.”

Kerala Women’s Commission chairperson D Sreedevi has demanded a probe.
“It’s an eye-opener for everyone. Our observation that nuns are being maltreated in convents appears to be correct,” said the former Kerala High Court judge.
“Now we would closely monitor the investigation and ensure that the case is conducted properly.”

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Meenakshi Thampan, a member of the panel which took statements of both the parents, said the allegations appeared genuine. “What the parents told me was shocking. It is high time that we took serious note of the plight of young girls being forced to take the vow,” she said.

The KWC had recently observed that nuns in Kerala were facing hardship and were not entitled to their parental property. It wanted the state government to enact a law to prevent exploitation.

Critics say there have been cases where male members of the family forcibly send girls to the nunnery as they do not want to part with their properties.
Nuns have no right to property as they adopt nun’s life after taking the poverty pledge. Many nuns however are forced into convents by parents too poor to marry them off.

The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) is yet to solve the murder mystery of Sister Abhaya even after 16 years.

Yesterday, the high court asked a CBI officer who conducted the probe into the 1992 death to explain why the investigation has not made progress.

Abhaya, a resident of Pious X Hostel in Kottayam, was found dead in the well of the convent on March 27, 1992. In November 1996, the CBI concluded that that the death was homicide but it could not trace the murderer because “the evidence has been destroyed during the previous investigations’ by the local police.”

Trial room peeping Tom arrested

Bhavika Jain, Hindustan TimesMumbai, June 14, 2008 The police have arrested the attendant accused of taking photographs of a woman in the changing room of sports apparel store on Linking Road. Hindustan Times had first reported the incident on Thursday.
Additional Commissioner of Police Archana Tyagi said the accused she refused to give his name was arrested and “the mobile phone on which the photographs were taken has been confiscated by the police”. “It’s shocking that such incidents occur,” she added.
The traumatised victim had approached an HT correspondent, just after she had caught the attendant. The store management had said that the attendant was a trainee and that he would be dismissed.
The victim had refused to lodge a police complaint, fearing legal hassles.
After HT’s report, the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission said it would direct the police to take action on its own and submit a report. Mayor Shubha Raul had said she would write to the state government to amend the Shops and Establishments Rule to allow stringent action against such offenders. The rule was formulated in 1948 and has no stipulations about norms for changing rooms.
“Had the victim lodged a complaint, the case would have been much stronger,” Tyagi said. She also said that the commission had not approached the police, but they would cooperate if it did.

Woman sets goons on driver she loved

Times Of India
New Delhi,
15 May 2008,
TNN

NEW DELHI: A 35-year-old woman became so attached to her driver that she allegedly hired goons to throw acid on him after he had left the job to ply his own cab. The woman, Jaya, has been arrested for plotting the acid attack along with a BAMS doctor she befriended. On April 22, driver Deepak Kumar, 27, was admitted to hospital with burns. He told police that an unidentified man had thrown acid on him near Mahavir Enclave after calling him there for hiring his cab.
Police said Kumar had earlier been beaten up by unidentified assailants soon after he got engaged. The goons had then warned him of dire consequences if he went ahead with his marriage. Jaya’s husband is an NRI engineer working in the US while she lives in Gurgaon.

AICC panel starts inquiry into allegations against MLA

Sahara Samay

Patna, May 5: A two-member panel sent by the AICC today began its probe into the allegations of sexual harassment levelled by a former bodyguard against Congress MLA Sunita Devi, who had resigned as the state Mahila Congress chief on "moral grounds" in the wake of the controversy.

AICC (Women cell) General Secretaries Mahjamin Khan and Sheikha Kapoor, soon after their arrival from New Delhi, called Sunita Devi at the state party headquarters here.

Sunita Devi explained her position and rubbished the charges against her, a senior party leader said pleading anonymity. Sunita Devi alleged that the policeman was playing into the hands of her political opponents and had tried to "blackmail" her.

Emerging from the party headquarters, Khan and Kapoor told reporters that they examined Sunita "and would submit a report to the AICC on return to New Delhi tomorrow".

Bal Yogeshwar Sharma, a constable and a former bodyguard of Sunita Devi, who had levelled the sexual harassment charges against her and was placed under suspension on Saturday, was likely to be contacted by the probe panel for his version, party sources said.

Taking a serious view of the allegations, state Congress president Sadanand Singh had also constituted a three-member committee to hold an impartial inquiry.

Sharma has accused Sunita Devi, a Congress legislator from Korha in Katihar district, of having exploited him sexually when he was posted as her bodyguard after the 2005 assembly election.

India proposes only women judges for rape trials

Reuters

New Delhi, August 4:

India has proposed that only women judges try rape cases to help sexual assault victims get justice faster and make trials sensitive to their trauma, a Law Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

The proposal, a Bill which has to be passed by Parliament, was approved at a Cabinet meeting late on Thursday, S M Kumar said.
Women's groups and rights activists have for long campaigned for reforming the judicial process that deals with sexual assault in a country where a woman is raped every 29 minutes.
The national capital, New Delhi, is the most unsafe Indian city for women, accounting for 30 per cent of rapes, according to government data.
"This is a very positive step and will help get justice for the rape victim," said Girija Vyas, chairwoman of the National Womens' Commission.
"Until now, male lawyers were able to threaten the victim and scare her. A woman judge will help build a sensitive atmosphere," she said.
The amendment would also allow the rape victim to have her lawyer with her during cross-examination. Earlier, this was in-camera, making it uncomfortable for the victim, Kumar said.
"A rape victim will also be given a female lawyer because only a woman can understand a woman," he added.
The Cabinet also proposed to allow victims of crime to appoint their own lawyers instead of being forced to use government prosecutors and end the practice of witnesses making confessions to police.