NEW DELHI: Five nuns and a doctor are on the run in India after being accused of concealing the birth of a baby to a teenager who alleges that a priest raped her, police said Sunday.
Arrest warrants have been issued for the six and for two hospital staff. They are accused of concealing the 16-year-old’s delivery from authorities and hiding the baby in a Catholic orphanage at Kunnur in the southern state of Kerala.
“They deliberately hid the incident from officials,” Prajish Thottathil, a senior police officer, told AFP, adding some of the accused likely also knew about the alleged assault.
Three of the accused work at a private hospital while the rest were associated with the orphanage where the baby was left.
The accused priest Robin Vadakkumchery was arrested last week after the victim gave birth in February, prompting an investigation.
Under Indian law doctors and hospitals must report all teenage pregnancies and deliveries to authorities.
The victim told investigators the accused priest raped her at a church-run school last year.
She and her family said they were unaware of the pregnancy until she complained of stomach pain and was taken to hospital, where she gave birth.
A child rights organization tipped off police about the secret delivery, triggering an investigation that revealed the alleged involvement of the priest.
Churches in Kerala have faced accusations of sexual abuse in the past.
Two autobiographies by former Catholic nuns have in recent years revealed the scale of sexual exploitation by priests and the prevalence of same-sex relations in convents.
Last year a priest was sentenced to 40 years in prison by a Kerala court for raping a 12-year-old girl in 2014.
Nearly one-fifth of the coastal state’s 34 million people follow Christianity.
Indian police hunt nuns accused of aiding rapist priest
Indian police hunt nuns accused of aiding rapist priest
Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says
- Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid
KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram messaging app.
Water utility pumping stations switched to generators and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and drones, seeking to knock out electricity and heating and hinder industry during the nearly four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
