New Delhi, Feb 13: The Supreme Court today stayed the trial of the 2008 Kandhamal nun rape case even as the Naveen Patnaik government today backed the cause of two persons accused of raping the missionary during the communal riots there.

The Odisha government accused the nun, who’s seeking the recall of a witness to support her case, of delaying trial in the case to keep the accused in jail.

“The accused persons are languishing in jail,” state counsel Suresh Tripathy contended, opposing sister Mina Lalitha Baruwa’s plea. But the bench, comprising Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice S.S. Nijjar, stayed the trial till further hearing of her plea. The bench observed that even if the complainant did not have the right, the court could always direct recall of a witness. The bench also indicated that since the case involved key law points relating to sections 301 and 311 of the CrPC, it would hear the issue at length. The case will come up for further hearing on March 22.

On January 5, Orissa High Court had dismissed Baruwa’s plea for recall of a witness. Baruwa was allegedly attacked by a mob during the riots and was molested and raped. A chargesheet was filed against 10 accused persons on January 28, 2009. A test identification parade was undertaken in which she identified two suspects Santosh Patnaik and Kartik Pradhan. The magistrate, who conducted the identification parade, later gave a statement exonerating the accused of rape, instead confining his deposition to molestation.

Baruwa initially approached the public prosecutor saying that the magistrate’s statement was contrary to the parade panchanama and was hostile to the prosecution case. She said that she had no such statement exonerating the accused of rape. She requested the public prosecutor to confront the witness. Unhappy with his unwillingness to do anything in the matter, she applied to the court for recall of witness for cross-examination.