INDIA
UCA News
ucanews.com reporter, Bhopal
India
October 20, 2015
A Catholic bishop has sought the intervention of Indian president Pranab Mukherjee to look into a case in Chhattisgarh state where a priest was accused of allegedly raping a fourth-grade student.
Bishop Patras Minj of Ambikapur wrote to Mukherjee pleading for him to initiate a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigations into the sex charges leveled against Father Joseph Dhanaswami.
The state police are “working under pressure from extremist groups and political parties,” Bishop Minj said in his Oct. 17 letter. Chhattisgarh state in central India is run by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Father Dhanaswami, principal of Jyoti Mission High School of Ambikapur Diocese in Chhattisgarh state, along with hostel warden Samaritan Sister Christ Maria and a maid were arrested Sept. 11 following a complaint by the mother of a fourth-grade student.
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