By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The police Thursday filed charges against 10 people, accused in the rape of a nun when religious riots hot Orissa’s Kandhamal district last year, officials said.
The charges were filed in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate at Baliguda in Kandhamal, investigating officer D.K. Mohanty told IANS on phone.
“We have charged all the 10 people arrested in the case,” he said.
“The police is looking for some more people involved in the case and we will file a supplementary charge sheet later after their arrest,” he said. The police say four or five suspects are at large.
The police, investigating the case, was supposed to file charges within 120 days from the date of the arrest of the accused. The police made the first arrest in the case Oct 2 last year.
The 29-year-old Catholic nun was attacked by a mob and raped Aug 24. She filed a complaint with the police two days later.
The nun was earlier reluctant to attend the identification parade of the accused in Kandhamal despite orders by a court. She submitted a petition in the Orissa High Court seeking change of the venue to Cuttack.
The high court Dec 18 asked the police to conduct the test identification parade in the Choudwar jail, some 30 km from here.
The parade was conducted Jan 5. The victim identified only two of the 10 people arrested.
Kandhamal, about 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.
At least 38 people were killed in the state and thousands of Christians forced to flee their homes after their houses were attacked by rampaging mobs. About 6,700 people are still living in government-run relief camps in the district.