Indian priest accused of abetting gang rape seeks bail

INDIA
UCA News

July 24, 2018

By Saji Thomas

Lawyer’s move follows arrest of alleged mastermind behind abduction of five women from Jesuit-run school

A Catholic priest accused of abetting the gang rape of five women has applied for bail after police arrested a person thought to be the mastermind behind the crime in eastern India.
Police have arrested John Jonas Tudu and claimed to have cracked the June 19 case of five women abducted from a Jesuit-run school and raped in a forest in Jharkhand state.
The women were taken from Stockmann Memorial Middle School in remote Kochang village in Khunti Diocese. Two nuns who were with the women were spared.
Police arrested school principal Father Alphonse Aind on June 22 and charged him with conspiracy, abetting abduction, gang rape, preparing obscene material and causing hurt. He has been held in jail while police investigated the crime.
“It’s all false charges. The priest was nowhere at the crime scene of abduction or gang rape,” said Jesuit Father Peter Martin, a lawyer who moved a bail application on July 23 for the release of Father Aind.

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