BHOPAL: More than two decades after four nuns were gang-raped by 26 men in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh, one of the two absconding accused was nabbed from the same West MP district by cops posing as staff of Panchayati Raj department.
The 45-year-old Kalu Limji (one of the two accused still on the run in the case which happened 21 years back) was nabbed by the Jhabua police team, which while posing as Panchayati Raj department had managed to reach Kalu’s hideout on the pretext of conducting a survey of people who had pucca houses with toilets.
According to Jhabua district police superintendent Vineet Jain, the absconding accused Kalu was arrested from Amba village under Kalidevi police station on Monday evening.
Sources privy to the development told The New Indian Express that after coming to know that Kalu Limji had come recently adjoining Gujarat to Amba village, a police team in plain clothes posing as staff of Panchayati Raj department was sent to the concerned village.
Once at the village, the plain clothed cops started conducting survey of villagers having houses with toilets. The cops subsequently managed to get in touch with Kalu also and asked him if he needed a house under government scheme. Just before Kalu could realize that he was in a trap, the cops nabbed him.
In September 1998, the accused, mostly tribals, raped the nuns at the Priti Sharan Mission at Naupara village in the predominantly tribal district. Nauapara is 25 km from the Jhabua district headquarters.
Of the 26 accused, 24 were arrested immediately after the incident. Nine were awarded life imprisonment by a local court, while 13 others were acquitted.
Kalu was one of the two absconding accused. The other accused on the run is Bachchu. Kalu was working as a labourer in neighbouring Gujarat
The nuns - three of them were aged between 20 and 25 while the fourth was over 30 - had come from Tamil Nadu to set up Priti Sharan and had made the village their home.