Over four months after she was allegedly raped during communal violence in Orissa's Kandhamal district, a Catholic nun on Monday finally identified two persons for involvement in the incident during a test identification parade, which was earlier deferred thrice. The 29-year-old nun identified two persons from a line-up of 90 during the identification parade (TIP) which was held at high-security Choudwar jail here and not in Kandhamal following a High Court direction after she sought a change of venue, a senior police officer said.
While ten persons had been arrested in connection with the case, 80 others were also paraded before the nun during the TIP, sources said adding that the exercise lasted for about 90 minutes.
Though the TIP was to be held last Saturday, the authorities deferred the exercise till today citing "unnecessary media attention", they said.
A court in Baliguda had fixed dates for the TIP twice earlier, but the nun, who had left Orissa after the incident, failed to turn up while seeking change of venue of the exercise saying she did not want to visit Kandhamal again.
The nun, who arrived at the jail escorted by crime branch sleuths and was accompanied by three other women, believed to be Church representatives, first spotted four persons from among a crowd of ten arrested men and finally zeroed in on two of them, they said.
The nun was allegedly raped at K. Nuagaon in strife-torn Kandhamal during the Orissa bandh on August 25 after prominent VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati was gunned down on August 23, 2008 at his Jalespota ashram.
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(Source: MHT)