Bengal CID makes first arrest in nun gang rape

KOLKATA: Police in West Bengal say they have arrested one the key suspects in the gang-rape of a 72-year-old nun.

The Criminal Investigation Department ( CID) of the state police arrested the man, identified as Mohammed Selim, following a raid in Mumbai.

This is the first arrest in the case that sparked nationwide outcry and prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express “deep concern”.

The arrest comes 11 days after the incident, which took place in Ranaghat in Nadia district of West Bengal. The elderly nun was brutalised by a gang of five or six people during an attack on a convent school. The attackers also robbed the school of Rs 12 lakh.

While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the state police’s CID said it was following leads given by some local criminals, who were interrogated soon after the incident.

CID sources said detectives were also monitoring mobile phones of some local criminals and came to know about Selim, who, they said, left Ranaghat soon after the incident. CID also got information that the other accused had fled the country for Bangladesh.