Christian nuns at an anti-clash rally in Mumbai. (PTI)

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 5: The state government, drawing severe flak for reacting late to the nun rape case in Kandhamal, today admitted that two more rape-related cases had been reported from the same district.

“A complaint about rape of a 22-year-old has been lodged at Tikabali police station recently. A case (No. 149/2008) has been registered and one person has been arrested in this connection,” state home secretary T.K. Mishra told reporters here.

Mishra said the victim was a Hindu, but there was no communal dimension in the commitment of crime.

The attempt to rape case had been lodged in Phulbani Sadar police station, said the home secretary, adding that a case had been registered and investigation was on.

Mishra, however, denied the allegation that Rajani Majhi, a caretaker of an orphanage in Padampur area of Bargarh district, was gangraped before she was burnt to death.

The agony of the state government, already in a tight spot after the reports of police sitting on the nun rape case came to limelight, intensified further with the victim telling a TV channel that the crime took place in the presence of police.

Claiming that she would be able to identify the culprits, the nun demanded justice not only for herself, but for the sake of the people with whom she was working.

The 29-year-old nun, who has taken shelter at a church in New Delhi, in her complaint lodged in Baliguda police station on August 26 had alleged that she was raped and paraded naked by a Hindu mob.

However, the police allegedly sat over the case and collected medical examination report establishing the rape charge only last week. In a damage control exercise, four persons were arrested on Friday and the inspector-in-charge was suspended for laxity. Today, the state government asked the additional resident commissioner posted in New Delhi to meet the nun and assure all assistance, said the home secretary.

She would be requested to co-operate with the police in identifying the culprits, said Mishra.

Meanwhile, the clothes of the victim have reached the state forensic laboratory for test, while the four accused arrested in the case would undergo a lie detection test tomorrow at the laboratory.

Rebel claims

Naxalites have once again claimed the responsibility of killing the VHP leader, Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, in Kandhamal.

“Tribals have their own religion. But Laxamananda used to reconvert them to Hinduism. We had issued several warnings to him to stop his activities, but he did not pay heed to it. So, it become necessary to eliminate him,” Sabyasachi Panda, one of the prominent leaders of CPI (Maoist), told a few selected TV channels.