Cuttack: A nun deposed before a session court as a case of attack on a Catholic priest resumed on August 8 in an eastern Indian state.
The nun and the priest, Fr Thomas Chellan, were severely beaten and paraded on streets during an anti-Christian violence that ravaged Odisha state’s Kandhamal district in 2008.
The Cuttack District and Sessions Court recorded the statement of the nun, who was also sexually assaulted on August 25, 2008 when a mob attacked a Catholic center.
During the course of recording her statement, she also identified five of the accused persons, who had allegedly attacked Father Chellan.
However, the procedure remained inconclusive so she will appear again on August 10. “Once the procedure completes, we will cross examine the nun,” defense lawyer Soura Chandra Mohapatra told reporters.
According to the prosecution, the nun was gangraped at Baliguda in Kandhamal district two days after riots broke out following the killing of a Hindu religious leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.
At least nine people faced trial in the case, but six were acquitted by the trial court for lack of evidence and three were convicted in the case in 2014. Along with gangrape case, another case was also filed against the accused for attacking Father Chellan.
The state crime branch police had arrested at least 23 people in the priest attack case.
The priest had failed to identify any of the accused during test identification parade held in 2009.
The crime branch had registered several cases after the riot. However, barring the nun rape case and the murder attempt on the priest, all cases were tried by the courts in Kandhamal. Following the Orissa High Court order, these two cases were shifted to Cuttack for trial.