De Nobili School A priest and a nurse working at a Catholic school in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand have been held in custody after being charged with sexually abusing a nine-year-old girl.
Church officials in the state, where the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party runs the government, say the case was fabricated amid a hostile atmosphere generated toward the state’s Christians, mostly tribal people, reported ucanews.com.
Fr Julian Ekka, vice principal of the Jesuit-run De Nobili School in Koradih, and the nurse, Emerencia Lomga, were arrested following a complaint from the father of the alleged victim, said district Police Chief Aman Kumar.
Ucanews.com reported the two appeared in court on September 10 and were remanded into custody pending further inquiries. They have been charged with violating several clauses of a stringent law relating to sexual offences against children. Such offences do not allow for bail.
According to police, in mid-August the fourth-grade girl was taken to the sick room after she complained of abdominal pain.
The priest and the nurse were present in the room, and police say a medical examination proved the child had been sexually assaulted. Based on “circumstantial evidence”, both were arrested after officers interviewed some staff members several weeks later, Kumar said.
Fr Jerome Sequeira, assistant provincial of Jesuits in Jamshedpur province, told ucanews.com that Jesuits had studied the case and found the “priest and the nurse innocent” and “in no way connected to the child abuse case”.