India arrests two in nun rape case

Indian police have arrested a suspect in connection with the rape of an elderly nun, a senior officer said yesterday, their first breakthrough in a case that has shocked the country.

Investigators traced Mohammed Salim Sheikh to the western city of Mumbai and detained him on Wednesday night, district superintendent Arnab Ghosh told AFP.

Police also arrested Gopal Sarkar on suspicion of harbouring Sheikh and his alleged accomplices, Gosh said.

The nun, who is in her 70s, needed surgery after she was attacked earlier this month when a gang of robbers broke into the convent school in the eastern state of West Bengal where she lived.

Police in the state capital Kolkata identified four of the six robbers through CCTV footage and had detained eight people for questioning. But no arrests were made until Wednesday and authorities in Kolkata had faced criticism over the pace of progress in the investigation.

The assault was the latest in a string of high-profile rapes in India and added to the fears of the country's Christian minority following a spate of attacks on churches.