'They should be given a strong message that they are not the ones who decide the rule of the land, and they are not the ones who decide what justice is.'
A year after the RG Kar rape-murder Swarupa Dutt/Rediff look at the city where it happened, Kolkata -- its study in dichotomy, at once the self-proclaimed cultural capital of India as also a petri dish for a peculiar rage that breeds crimes against women.
While Christians in Ranaghat insist that ghar wapsi was behind the robbery and rape of a nun at a local convent, the West Bengal CID believes a gang of Bangladeshis was behind the robbery and rape.
Ranaghat sub-disional hospital superintendent A N Mondal said that the nun was taken to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, over 64 km away, from where she left for an undisclosed destination.
Indrani Roy/Rediff.com visits Ranaghat in West Bengal's Nadia district, the scene of the horrific rape of a 72-year-old nun, and encounters a clueless police and a frightened Christian community.
The electoral exercise, the first since the Lok Sabha elections, will decide the fate of many veterans and some debutantes including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur.
'If robbery was their motive, they would have run away with the money.' 'After taking the money, they gang-raped the nun, desecrated the chapel, threw the Holy Communion, broke the statue and ran away with Mother Mary's crown.' 'We must not forget that vandalising churches and dishonouring Christians has become a regular affair in India in the past few months. This incident is a part of such destructive patterns.'
Moderate to high turnout was recorded in 13 assembly constituencies across seven states where bypolls were held on Wednesday amid sporadic incidents of violence in Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
Voting for the bypolls in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were held on Wednesday.
'This is becoming the new normal. Accountability of @AshwiniVaishnaw ji is zero. The GOI has no answers whatsoever'
Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections has begun across states and Union Territories, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told PTI.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday received wholehearted support from a group of women from the troubled Sandeshkhali area who met her after a Trinamool Congress rally in Kolkata, party sources said.
She alleged that vehicles belonging to VIPs, with tinted glass, are being used to smuggle arms and money into West Bengal, while directing the police to increase 'naka-checking' to prevent such attempts.
Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
Mahua asserted that despite all efforts by the Bharatiya Janata Party to "sound the death knell" for constitutional democracy, India is too great a country to be destroyed by the fascists.
Cricketer Yusuf Pathan will contest from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat, whereas Kirti Aazd will fight from the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.
Trinamool Congress on Monday carried out a major organisational reshuffle in the party and inducted several new faces, including some ministers with thrust on toning up the party ahead of next year's crucial panchayat polls.
Over one crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the political fate of 342 candidates.
A 71-year-old nun was allegedly gang-raped inside a convent in Nadia district of West Bengal early Saturday, triggering protests.
The move came after a nine-member delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party MPs from West Bengal met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and sought his intervention and action against the perpetrators of the crime.
A 28-year-old Bangladeshi, one of the main accused in the sexual assault of a septuagenarian nun at a Ranaghat convent school, has been arrested from Sealdah railway station in Kolkata.
The West Bengal government has decided to hand over the Rangaghat nun gang-rape case to the Central Bureau of Investigation "considering the seriousness and sensitivity of the case", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday.
The Centre on Friday rejected West Bengal government's request for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the gang rape of a 71-year-old nun at a convent school in Nadia district, a day after the CID achieved a breakthrough in arresting two suspects 12 days after the heinous crime took place.
Within hours of assuming office, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday initiated a major reshuffle in the police hierarchy, transferring 29 top-level police officers, mostly those who were shifted by the election commission prior to the polls.
Policemen in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri town went on a round-the-clock vigil after a missionary school received four handwritten letters in Hindi
'It doesn't help to transpose the Hindi heartland model on Bengal. Bengalis don't understand its dynamics. They won't comprehend the impact of Modi's dip in the Ganga because Bengal's political culture is different. Even in the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrams, Christ is worshipped on Christmas. It's difficult to polarise Bengal religiously'
The woman has pleaded to spend some more time in the hospital.
Picketeers blocked rail traffic at several places in the Sealdah-Ranaghat, Sealdah-Bongaon and Sealdah-Barasat section for several hours.
Wednesday's expansion shows that Modi still has a keen eye on Bengal. The BJP is gearing up for the panchayat elections in Bengal next May and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
After 11 days, the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department arrested two men in the gang rape of a 71-year-old nun during an attack on a convent in West Bengal's Ranaghat, about 100 km from Kolkata.
Although earlier reports indicated that five people had been detained in connection with the case, Nadia SPsaid no arrests or detention have so far been made in the case.
In case the EC doesn't hold elections within six months, the duration in which Banerjee has to become an MLA, the Trinamool Congress is ready with Plan B.
Religious leaders from various faiths assembled on Thursday for a prayer meeting to express support for and solidarity with a 71-year-old nun whose gang-rape at a convent school in West Bengal's Ranaghat sent ripples across the country.
The Centre on Monday asked the West Bengal government to send a report on the incident
The EC has deployed 580 companies of central forces to man over 98 per cent of the polling booths in these constituencies to ensure free and fair polling.
The disrobed body of a 75-year-old woman inmate of an ashram was found on Wednesday at Katwa, in West Bengal, fuelling allegations of a second rape of a senior citizen in West Bengal in a week.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's convoy was on Monday blocked by angry protesters for nearly an hour.
Former Union Minister Deepa Dasmunsi was on Friday made the Congress candidate from Bhabanipur seat in West Bengal to take on Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in the assembly elections.
The church's caretaker found that the main door was ajar and a few belongings and the ciborium were broken.
They molested some women and robbed the passengers at gunpoint, in Ranaghat in Nadia district.\n
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