Cuttack, Jan. 7: Trial of the five-year-old Kandhamal nun gang-rape case has resumed in the court of the district and sessions judge here after two years and eight months.

The 29-year-old nun was allegedly gang raped at Nuagaon within the limits of Baliguda police station during an ongoing communal violence in Kandhamal district on August 25, 2008.

The high court had transferred the trial in the nun gang-rape case from Baliguda to Cuttack in March 2010 after she filed a petition apprehending that a free and fair trial was not possible in Kandhamal. Consequently, the court of the district and sessions judge, Cuttack, began trial in the case.

Examination of all the 28 witnesses was completed in May 17, 2011. However, recording of statements of the accused persons could not start in the trial court as the high court issued a stay order on June 8, 2011. The trial court had rejected the nun’s petition seeking recall of a prosecution witness who had conducted the test identification parade. She had challenged it in the high court.

“The trial in the court of the district and sessions judge, Cuttack, resumed yesterday after the Supreme Court vacated the stay order on December 12, 2013, acting on a petition filed by the victim nun,” said Sarbeswar Behera, counsel for the accused persons.

District and sessions judge of Cuttack Gyanaranjan Purohit had recalled the prosecution witnesses — Prasant Kumar Das (the sub-divisional judicial magistrate of Cuttack, who had conducted the test identification parade) following the Supreme Court order. “The prosecution witness, who is at present the chief judicial magistrate of Keonjhar, appeared before the trial court and reiterated his earlier statement that the victim nun had not stated anything regarding rape during the test identification parade,” Behera said. “As a responsible judicial officer, I have conducted the test identification parade following the rules and regulations provided in the Criminal Procedure Code,” Das stated before the trial court.

The victim nun had sought recall of the witness alleging that the judicial magistrate had misrepresented her statement before the trial court.

The trial court has fixed January 16 to start recording of the statements of all the 10 accused persons.