Nun wants change of identification parade venue: Archbishop

The Catholic nun, raped during the communal violence in Kandhamal, has demanded a change in the venue for Test Identification Parade, four days after a court there asked her to be present at Baliguda on November 10 for the same.

“She is under treatment and therefore cannot travel such a long distance,” Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Archbishop Raphael Cheenath said on Wednesday.

Stating that they were planning to urge the court to allow a change in venue, Cheenath said the nun had undergone a traumatic experience at Kandhamal, therefore she would not like to go there again to identify the culprits.

Asked about the choice of venue, archbishop said it was yet to be decided.

The nun, who was raped at K Nuagaon in Kandhamal during the Orissa bandh on August 25 after Laxamananda Saraswati’s killing, in the FIR had stated that she could identify the rapist.

The nun, who along with a priest Thomas Chelan filed a complaint at the Baliguda police station on August 26, has remained untraced though she addressed a media conference at Delhi on October 24, two days after the Supreme Court turned down a plea to hand over the investigation to CBI.

Earlier, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had told media that the state government was ready to conduct the TIP at any place in the country.

The sub-divisional judicial magistrate’s court at Baliguda on November 1 issued a notice to the nun to attend the TIP at Baliguda.