Seven Peaceful Christians jailed in a Conspiracy

by Jael SC · Published April 21, 2016 · Updated April 12, 2017

Following anti-Christian pogroms in India in 2008, seven Christians were convicted of the murder of the Hindu leader whose death sparked off the violence. A Catholic journalist believes they are innocent and is campaigning for their release.

Anto Akkara is pictured at a press conference with the wives of the Christians who he says were injustly jailed for the muder of a Hindu leader.

More than seven years since seven Indian Christians were arrested on suspicion of murdering a Hindu leader — whose death sparked the worst case of anti-Christian violence in India’s history — one of them has been freed on interim bail for a month. But all seven of them, six of whom are illiterate, continue to maintain their innocence.

Previous bail applications from the seven had been flatly rejected by the High Court of the eastern state of Odisha. But Gornath Chalanseth’s successful application gives hope to the families of the other six that they too may soon be released.

Nearly 100 Christians were killed and 300 churches and 6000 Christian homes damaged in the Kandhamal district of Odisha, after the killing of controverial Hindu spiritual leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on August 23, 2008.

Soon after the assassination, the Maoist Communist Party of India claimed responsibility for the attack.

By the end of that year, the seven Christians—Bijay Kumar Sanseth, Durjo Sunamajhi, Bhaskar Sunamajhi, Budhadeb Nayak, Munda Badamajhi, Sanatan Badamajhi and Mr Chalanseth—had been arrested. In 2013, they were found guilty of the murder by the trial court and each sentenced to life imprisonment. A day later, the same court also convicted a Maoist leader for the assasination.

Violence against Christians in the Kandhamal district of Odisha, India in 2008.

The convictions of the seven shocked India’s Christian community, which was still reeling after the deadly attacks, and Christian advocates have been fighting for their release ever since.

Chief among these is Anto Akkara, a Catholic journalist from Kerala State, who is close to completing his fifth book about the saga, which he refers to as a great “conspiracy”.

“There is absolutely no shred of evidence that links these people to the murder, so my question is: why are these people in jail?” said Mr Akkara, a Catholic who has written for The Southern Cross.

“The whole case is a blot on the face of India’s judicial system — why have these illiterate, innocent people been convicted? If it goes on like this, these poor people will die like convicts in jail and history will say Christians killed the swami.”

Mr Akkara was recently involved in the creation of a website — www.release7innocents.com — which urges readers to sign a petition for the release of the seven.

Each online signature generates instant e-mails to India’s president, the chief justice of India’s Supreme Court and the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, asking for the release of the seven.

The bail order for Gornath Chalanseth from the Odisha High Court came a day after Mr Akkara received a call from the National Human Rights Commission asking about the online signature campaign.

The website outlines the major discrepancies and apparent injustices in the case against the Christians.

“The trial court convicted the seven accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment on the basis of a fabricated Christian conspiracy theory, despite hardly any credible evidence brought before the court,” it states.

It then adds that in June 2015 “two top police officials — who had relied upon the same conspiracy theory to ensure the conviction of the innocent Christians—have testified before the Kandhamal judicial inquiry commission that the allegations were false.” However, the website notes that the appeal hearing has since been “repeatedly” postponed.

“Everyone should speak up for these people,” said Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai after the website’s launch.

The website asserts that discrepancies within the case against the seven were apparent right from the start, when Hindu fundamentalists blamed Christians for the Swami’s murder.

In the days that followed his murder, the swami’s body was taken across Kandhamal, “accompanied by thousands of Hindus…to incite the primordial passion of revenge among Hindus in one of the least developed districts of Odisha”, notes the website.

“They wanted to make a spectacle of it, and were prepared — as events were to prove — to take full advantage of the passions that would arise. They did not even go by the shortest route, but meandered across [Kandhamal],” noted a report by a group of human rights organisations.

Three-quarters of the damage done to Christian homes took place along the route of the funeral procession, the website reports. Among the slogans shouted was, “Kill Christians and destroy their institutions”.

“It was obvious that public reaction to the murder of a prominent religious leader like the swami would be extreme. Yet when options to be followed after the murder were being considered, there is little evidence that high-level political and official leadership offered guidance and support to the local district administration,” said the National Commission for Minorities after its visit to Kandhamal a month after the 2008 violence.

Fifty-six thousand Christians were displaced after the violence in Kandhamal. Since then, the local community has struggled to receive adequate compensation from the government, which has been a source of much contention.

Fr Ajaya Kumar Singh, director of the Odisha Forum for Social Action, told Asia News: “After the violence of 2008, young people migrated to other states in search of work.”

In June 2013, according to The Hindu, a report recommended that the Odisha state government “take immediate measures to adequately rehabilitate and resettle the victim-survivors of the Kandhamal violence”. The report further urged the government to “ensure full reparation to those whose livelihoods were affected due to violence and strife”.

In his forthcoming book, Cry of the Oppressed, Mr Akkara profiles the seven Christians, outlining some of the reasons why he believes they are innocent. —World Watch Monitor

Follow Anto Akkara and the Release 7 Innocents campaign on Twitter: @AntoAkkara