Campaign for Kandhamal’s 7 innocents reaches 10,000 signatures

By Matters India Reporter

Bhubaneswar: The Campaign for Kandhamal’s seven innocents – six of them illiterates including a mentally challenged – languishing in jail for nine years due to Sangh Parivar fraud, crossed a big milestone (Feb 28) reaching 10,000 signatures.

Journalist Anto Akkara who anchors the campaign for seven innocents thanks all those who have signed. Yet, they continue to languish in jail by the subversion of the judicial system, he told Matters India.

The campaign would go on with those who believe in truth and justice and endorse this petition. People need to speak up for the voiceless, Akkara added.

Seven innocent Christians from remote Kandhamal district in Odisha state of India are languishing in jail following the mysterious murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on August 23, 2008. These innocent Christians were convicted in 2013 of the murder touted as a Christian conspiracy.

Following the Hindu leader’s murder, nearly 100 Christians had been killed and 300 churches and 6,000 Christian houses plundered and torched in unabated violence that continued for weeks. Hindu masses – most of them illiterate – had been incited to take revenge on the Christians after the slain Swami’s body was paraded across Kandhamal for two days along zigzag routes.

A third judge of the trial court – after two judges were transferred – convicted the accused Christians and sentenced them to life imprisonment on the basis of a fabricated Christian conspiracy theory despite hardly any credible evidence brought before the court.

In mid 2015, two top police officials – who had relied upon the same conspiracy theory to ensure the conviction of the accused – have testified before the Kandhamal judicial Inquiry commission that the allegations were false.

Yet, the hearing on the appeal of the innocent convicts has been repeatedly postponed by the Odisha High Court. Hence, Akkara, human rights activities and others urge the Chief Justice of India and other constitutional authorities to end the travesty of justice and release the seven innocents.