Orissa High Court

Cuttack, Sept. 9: Orissa High Court has cleared the decks for resumption of proceedings for the trial of the five-year-old Tikabali gang-rape case. The court has allowed the victim’s appeal seeking shifting of the trial from Phulbani.

The court has shifted the trial from Phulbani to Berhampur and directed that the trial be concluded by the end of December. The victim, who was then 22-year-old, was gang-raped at Gandanaju village in Gardingia gram panchayat of Tikabali block in Kandhamal district on September 19, 2008 (less than a month after a nun was raped at Nuagaon in the same district).

The court of the sessions judge, Phulbani, had examined 11 of the 26 prosecution witnesses, but was not able to proceed with the trial as the high court had issued a stay order on it in September 2009 after the victim filed a petition for shifting of the trial.

“In view of the consensus among the parties and considering the nature of charge which the accused are facing and apprehension raised on behalf of the victim, this court is of the considered view that in the interest of fair trial in the case the sessions trial should be tried in Berhampur,” the single-judge bench of Justice B.K. Patel observed, while disposing of the victim’s petition last week.

“The sessions judge, Berhampur, shall make all endeavours to conclude the trial expeditiously, preferably by the end of December 2013,” Justice Patel said in the order, a copy of which is in possession of The Telegraph.

The CID-Crime Branch police took up investigation into the Tikabali gangrape case on October 4, 2008. The court of the sessions judge, Phulbani, had framed charges and started trial in the case on April 15, 2009, after a charge sheet was filed against five persons.

But the victim moved the high court saying that there was little hope of a fair trial if it was conducted in Phulbani or any other place within Kandhamal “as the witnesses are being threatened and they are not sure whether they can return to their village safely after deposing before the court”.

While seeking direction for transfer of the trial from Phulbani to Cuttack, she said it would not be safe for her to go to Phulbani to give evidence, as she may be subjected to threats and violence.

During adjudication on her plea, the state government stated that it had no objection if the case was transferred outside Phulbani. Counsel for the accused submitted that they had no objection if the trial took place at Berhampur because the accused were tribal and were thus entitled to legal aid.