By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The Orissa High Court Friday asked the state crime branch to conduct the test identification parade at Cuttack in the case of the nun who was allegedly raped during communal violence in Kandhamal district in August, a lawyer said.
“A single bench of the high court comprising Justice B.K. Patel pronounced the judgment in a crowded court setting aside the order of the sub divisional judicial magistrate at Baliguda,” the nun’s lawyer Manas Singh told IANS.
“The court has, however, not announced any date for it,” Singh added.
The nun was reluctant to attend the identification parade in Kandhamal district despite orders by a local court.
She had petitioned the high court seeking change of the venue to Cuttack, some 26 km from here, saying that she is ill and was traumatised.
The Kandhamal district, some 200 km from here, witnessed widespread communal violence after the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his aides at his ashram Aug 23.
Thousands of Christian were forced to flee their home after their houses were attacked by rampaging mobs. More than 10,000 people are still living in government-run relief camps in the district.
In her written complaint filed two days after the crime Aug 24, the nun said that a mob of about 40 to 50 armed men attacked a house at K.Nuagaon village where she along with a priest, Thomas Chellantharayil, had taken shelter after their centre was attacked.
The mob dragged her and the priest outside the house and took them to a deserted office of an non-government organisation where she was raped, she said. They also paraded her naked on the streets, she alleged, adding that the incident occurred in the presence of several policemen.