Pakur: A court in Jharkhand has sentenced 16 people to life imprisonment for killing a Catholic nun, who had worked for the emancipation of tribal people in the eastern Indian state.

A mob hacked to death Sister Valsa John in Pakur district four years ago. The Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary nun, who was 52 at the time of her murder, had been fighting for the rights of the tribal villagers, who lost their land to miners in coal rich region for over two decades,

District and Sessions Judge Omprakash Srivastav delivered the sentence on October 16. The court had convicted them three days earlier.

The convicted are: Saheb Ram Madaia, Jitan Bagchi, Bablu Murmu, Bablu Murmu (two persons of the same name), Jairam Marandi, Raju Murmu, Suresh Murmu, Paisil Hembram, Prem Turi, Edwin Murmu, Tala Hembram Rakesh Turi, Pradhan Murmu, Ranjan Marandi, Nazir Soren and Munsi Murmu.

The court also found them guilty various other crimes. The prison sentence will run concurrently.

Sister Valsa, a native of Kerala, was killed around midnight on November 15, 2011 at Kathaldih village under Amrapada police station of the Pakur district.

She was active in fighting for the rights of villagers threatened by coal miners.

Thousands had attended her funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral in Jharkhand’s Pakur district, two days after her death.

Jesuit Father Tom Kavalakatt, who was then the director of the Social Action Centre in Dumka, noted in his homily that Sr. John “had dedicated her life to poor people. She was the voice for the poor.”

Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi mourned her death, saying, “The poor have lost a benefactor. The religious sister was serving the poor, especially tribals, and fighting for justice.”

He said her death brought “shame on the state,” and demanded a high-level investigation to “reveal mysteries behind the murder.”

Sr. John became known in Jharkhand after she launched campaigns against displacement and pollution. She ran a school that provided free education to 140 children. She also ran a dispensary offering free medicine to village people.