By IANS,
New Delhi: Expressing outrage at the “vulgar” language used by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to describe a woman accused in the murder of a Kerala nun, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Brinda Karat Thursday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ask all probe agencies to maintain “minimum standards of respect to the dignity of women”.
In a letter to the prime minister, Karat said: “The language used in the CBI charge sheet against an accused, Sister Sephy, is obscene, vulgar, unscientific.”
“It is an affront to the dignity of women, it is insulting to the woman concerned and also reflects a perverted mentality,” she said, and added that if the newspaper report was found true, action should be taken against the CBI officials concerned.
The CPI-M leader said while she held no quarter for the accused, “I request you to send a strong message to all investigative agencies that minimum standards of respect to the dignity of women will be protected.”
“If the premier investigative agency of the country can use such objectionable language, what can women expect from local investigation officers?” Karat asked.
She referred to a report in the Indian Express Thursday that gave details of a charge sheet filed by the CBI last week in a Kochi court in a 1992 murder case of a Catholic nun, Sister Abhaya.
The CBI’s allegation is that Sister Abhaya saw Sister Sephy together with two male priests, who are co-accused in the case, in “suspicious circumstances” and so the three killed her.
The CBI alleged that the accused nun was trying to prove herself to be a virgin, and the agency used objectionable language in its report to describe her.
“I was shocked and outraged reading the report and I am sure that anyone who read it would have the same reaction,” Karat said.
She added: “The language used in the charge sheet against a female accused invites criminal action against the officials concerned under laws pertaining to protection of a woman’s dignity, against harassment as also against obscenity.”
Karat said that in many cases relating to women, including rape victims, the language used by the investigative agencies was often highly offensive.