Odisha nun’s rape not mentioned in FIR: Priest

Baliguda priest Father Thomas Chelathin, a key witness in the Kandhamal nun rape case, admitted before a trial court here on Monday that he had not mentioned about the rape incident in his FIR filed on August 26, 2008, just a day after the nun was allegedly raped during the violence in the district.

Deposing before the Cuttack District Judge here, the priest admitted the fact during cross examination by defence lawyers. The priest got into into further trouble when he identified two accused in the court saying that they were present among the mob during the attack on the church.

“The priest had however, failed to identify any of the accused during the Test Identification (TI) parade held at Choudwar jail last year”, defence lawyer Souri Bandhu Kar told mediapersons after the day’s trial inside the chamber of Cuttack District Judge Bira Kishore Mishra.

Another defence lawyer Ajit Kumar Patnaik said the case was unnecessarily being blown out of proportion and the sole intention of the complainants was to tarnish the image of the State.