During the violence in Kandhamal district, a Catholic nun who worked with the tribals was taken away, along with a priest from the house where she took shelter, by a mob shouting "Bharat Mata Ki Jai.
[1][2][3] The nun belonged to the Servite Order of the Catholic Church and was born in Sambalpur, Odisha, India.
[4] She was 28 years old during the time of the incident and worked with the tribals at the Divya jyoti Pastoral Centre in K Nuagaon, 12 km from Baliguda town in Kandhamal District.
[9] During the evening of 24 August 2008, a large mob arrived in front of the Divya jyoti centre where the nun was staying and she ran out through the back door, along with a few others, into the forest and sheltered at the house of a Hindu man for the night.
[14] The mob took her to a burnt down building, tore off her upper clothing, and she was gang-raped with two of the attackers standing on her hands.
The nun claimed that the mob then took her and the priest outside and were searching for a rope to tie them up and burn them alive.
The mob then paraded the nun half-naked without her upper clothing for more than a half-kilometer to a marketplace where people made lewd remarks such as "Hi beautiful" and commented on the size of her breasts.
The nun claimed that the mob said they would return after taking a food break, and that the police were very friendly with a man who attacked her, and discouraged her from filing a first information report (FIR).
[21][22] On 3 October 2008, the Police Chief of Khandamal district, confirmed the rape and arrested 4 people in connection with the incident.
[27][28] Her public appeal mounted pressure on the ruling party to ban Bajrang Dal, a Sangh Parivar group which was the most accused of orchestrating the Kandhamal riots.