Bhubaneswar, Oct. 31: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today ordered for the suspension of five police personnel, who were present when a nun was allegedly raped and paraded naked on the streets of Kandhamal two months ago, for negligence of duty.

The suspended men include assistant sub-inspector Rasananda Mallick, havildar major of Sixth Orissa Special Armed Police battalion (Osap) K.N. Mohapatra, along with havildars S.K. Hamim and J.S. Khan and havildar of the Seventh Osap battalion B.K. Mohanty.

“The five have been placed under suspension for professional misconduct and negligence of duty in connection with the episode,” confirmed home secretary T.K. Mishra addressing a news meet in the state capital today.

Sources in the chief minister’s office said that punitive action was taken on the basis of a joint report filed by Kandhamal collector Krishna Kumar and superintendent of police S. Praveen Kumar. Naveen Patnaik had sought the joint report yesterday and had granted a 24-hour deadline to the two.

The report was to examine the role of police personnel present at the spot when the nun was raped and allegedly paraded naked on the street at a K-Nuagaon village under Baliguda police station area on August 25.

Naveen’s move came after the nun in question accused the Orissa police of inaction at a New Delhi news conference, where she added that she did not wish to be “victimised” by the Orissa police further and refused to co-operate with the force.

She also said that police personnel were present at the spot when the mob was assaulting her. The woman went on to seek a CBI probe into the matter.

The nun, who is reportedly in Kerala, has refused to co-operate with a police team constituting crime branch personnel and has ignored repeated requests from the Orissa government to come out of her hiding.

Finding the BJD government in a tight spot after the Delhi media meet, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had sought the report as a damage control exercise to win the victim’s confidence. Today’s suspension order was a follow up action.

With the suspension of the five, the number of suspended personnel in the rape case has risen to six.

Earlier, Baliguda police station officer-in-charge K.N. Rao was suspended for his laxity as his police team sat on the case for over a month, even after the woman in question lodged an FIR a day after the incident.

Though a medical report had established the rape allegation, the police collected the report after a month’s time. Rao, in his defence, had explained that he was far too “preoccupied with the law and order situation prevailing in the state after the murder of Laxmananda Saraswati” to investigate the other matter.