india

Updated: Apr 01, 2015 08:35 IST

Police in Ludhiana have detained four persons in connection with the gangrape of an elderly nun in Bengal's Ranaghat and the subsequent robbery incident at a convent.

Two persons each were detained on Monday and Tuesday. "All four are Bangladeshis. Ludhiana police commissioner himself is looking into it," Dinkar Gupta, additional DGP (security), told HT.



Naveen Singla, Ludhiana deputy commissioner, said, "We are interrogating them and also conducting search operations on the basis of information received from them. Bengal police have been informed. At present, I can't share anything more. It's a sensitive matter."



Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials, with the assistance of Mumbai Police crime branch, had made the first arrest in the case from a Mumbai slum in the wee hours of Thursday. The person was identified as Sheikh Salim.

The next day, a CID team arrested Gopal Sarkar, a resident of Habra in North 24-Parganas for providing shelter to those who committed the crime. Police said that eight people were involved and that after committing the crime they possibly fled to Bangladesh.

The Ranaghat incident, which took place in the wee hours of March 14, came against the backdrop of attacks on the Christian community and triggered shock waves.

The breakthroughs in the case came after Bengal police circulated photos of four culprits to state police authorities across the country.

The culprits were caught on CCTVs on the campus of the Convent of Jesus and Merry High School. While four faces were recorded, four were drawn later on the basis of description given by nuns and the securityman present when the incident took place.



The Centre has already said CBI can't take up the case, and the onus is now on state police and CID to solve the gruesome crime.