New Delhi (Sputnik) — An Indian court has sentenced a 28-year-old Bangladeshi national, Nazrul Islam, to life imprisonment by an Indian court in a two-year-old rape case, which had fueled anger across the country. The other five perpetrators have been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The victim, a 71-year-old nun, lived in a convent school in India's eastern state of West Bengal. She was raped when a gang of robbers broke into the school. Four of the accused, Nazrul Islam, Milan Kumar Sarkar, Ohidul Islam and Khaledar Rahman are Bangladesh nationals, while Mohd Selim Sheikh claimed before the court that he is from the Indian city of Mumbai.
"What happened to the elderly nun is a blot on West Bengal's legacy where Mother Teresa worked for the poor," judge Kumkum Singha told a packed court in Kolkata.
The chief public prosecutor Tamal Mukerjee said that nun had identified Nazrul during a lineup. The nun was moved out of the state after the incident in 2015. "She strode straight towards the accused and identified him by touching his hand," he said.
Kolkata court sentences #Bangladeshi man to imprisonment till death for raping nun during dacoity at convent in WB's Ranaghat town 2 yrs ago
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) 8 ноября 2017 г.
It was established during the trial that all the six convicted men had ransacked the prayer hall and other places in the convent for more than three hours on the night of March 14, 2015. While all the convicted people were charged with rape and loot, a rape charge could only be established against Nazrul.
