The 29-year-old Catholic nun who was allegedly raped in Kandhamal during the August riots filed a petition in the Orissa High Court on Monday for shifting the venue of the Test Identification parade of the accused persons from the strife-torn district. The victim in her petition expressed apprehensions of “danger to her life” in Kandhamal. “The TI Parade may be allowed to be held at New Delhi or at any other place in Orissa, preferably Bhubaneswar or Cuttack. Many criminal elements are roaming free in the area and if she goes to Baliguda Court there is reasonable chance of danger to her life,” the petition urged.

Earlier the nun had filed a petition in the court of the Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate at Baliguda of Kandhamal seeking more time and for shifting the venue of the TI Parade to New Delhi. But SDJM Dolagovinda Barik rejected her plea on November 21 and asked the CID to submit a final form (status of investigation and remand) in the case by November 24. The court had fixed the hearing on December 6.

The alleged victim in her petition invoked the inherent powers of the High Court under section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code. She said that she was still “suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”. To support her claims, she submitted a medical report by Dr Jamila Koshy of St Stephens Hospital, New Delhi. She also claimed that she was “undergoing spiritual treatment” in New Delhi.

Though the nun was initially reluctant to help the Orissa Police as they had not come to her rescue, she later agreed to meet a team of the CID at Delhi on November 18. She was interrogated at length by the team. Later she was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Science for drawing blood samples. The samples have been sent to the forensic laboratory at Calcutta for a DNA match. The CID has already sent the blood sample of the main accused and five other co-accused in the rape case to the forensic lab for DNA mapping.