With a little over a month and a half left for the 10th anniversary of the 2008 Kandhamal violence in Orissa, where 100 Christians were butchered, over 56,000 of them displaced and seven innocent people victimised and incarcerated for the past ten years; internationally acclaimed author and journalist, Anto Akkara is campaigning for release of the seven and has appealed to the people to join his online campaign for justice.
Anto Akkara made the appeal during a meet with media at ‘Press Point’, Super Market during which he gave insights into the conspiracy, allegedly by senior leaders of an extreme right wing organisation.
In a free and frank interaction with media persons here Monday, Anto Akkara, who has dedicated more than nine long years investigating the Kandhamal killings, laid bare the shocking revelations of the Sangh Parivar fraud and travesty of justice in the Kandhamal killings in Orissa.
He said within hours after the Swami’s murder, four Christians including a 13-year old illiterate boy were allegedly picked up by VHP, thrashed and dumped in police stations. Anto said it was not the police but VHP leader Praveen Togadia who announced the names of ‘Swami’s killers’.
The Kandhamal killings erupted on August 23, 2008 after Christians were accused of being responsible for the killing of Swami Laxmanananda, a Hindu priest at Kandhamal district in Orissa. Though Moaists claimed responsibility, seven innocent Christians were randomly picked up from different places and are incarcerated even today. Anto Akkara alleged that the religious fundamentalists were actually behind the killings.
The trusted body guard of the 81-year old Swami was missing on the day Swami Laxmanananda was killed and police guards fled when the assailants entered. Even before sunrise, he said the conspirators made preparations for the zigzag funeral procession with the body of the slain priest crisscrossing Kandhamal for two days in calling for revenge on Christians. What followed then was a bloodbath as nearly 100 Christians were killed and 300 churches and 6,000 houses were plundered in unabated violence that rendered 56,000 homeless.
When the police could not ‘fix’ the ‘first batch of killers’ who had been detained for 40 days, they were let off with an affidavit: “Due to fear, we had taken shelter in police station.”
Next the investigation team arrested the ‘second batch of killers that included: seven innocent Christians – six of them illiterate, including a mentally challenged man from remote Kotagarh area in two batches.
In the four years of trial that ensued in the Fast Track Court, no worthwhile evidence was brought before the judges. Biranchi N Mishra, the Fast Track Court judge who had presided over the final two years of the trial, was transferred in 2013 before delivering the verdict.
Anto raised the issue over why was Biranchi N Mishra transferred?’
He asked, was it because Mishra had challenged the prosecution on the detention of seven innocents and wrote in the ‘Order Diary’ that the conduct of the Investigating Officer was ‘deplorable’? Ironically, the Investigating Officer (IO) Santosh Kumar Patnaik was conferred the Police Medal after this!
The seven accused Christians were sentenced to life imprisonment immediately after the third judge was appointed in October 2013. While the judgment raises serious questions, the appeal is pending before High Court.
Even the reputed National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) appeared to have turned its back on the seven innocent victims, when requested to depute some officers to visit Kandhamal, said Anto.
Interestingly even Hindus in Kotagarh questioned the manner in which the judicial system was subverted to convict their seven innocent neighbours.
The Hindu neighbours even expressed readiness to stand as witnesses to prove the innocence of the seven in court, said Anto.
Surprisingly, two years after this conviction, the same police officers who had ensured the conviction of the innocent Christians told the Justice Naidu Commission that the much trumpeted ‘Christian conspiracy’ theory was baseless, including the ‘Beticola resolution.’ Ashok Sahu, (IPS &DGP from Assam) had, claimed that he got the Beticola Resolution like a holy grail at the beginning of Swami’s funeral procession. But forensic testing showed that it was forged.
In this resolution, cooked up by the Hindu Jagran Samukya, the remote Catholic parish of Beticola is alleged to have decided ‘to offer the life of a monk on Janmashtami day and on the eve of the foundation day’ of the VHP – for the devilish satisfaction of God.
A video surfaced years before the Kandhamal violence , where Swami Laxmanananda had said on record, “The actual intention of the Europe, US, the Pope and Sonia Gandhi was to convert the entire region into the independent Christian land. God has sent me from Himalaya and it was stalled. That is why their campaign was to drive away swamiji and create a Christian land. As long as I am alive I shall not let you do that.”
This statement was years before his murder and was used a proof for the “Christian Theory” in the DVD documentary ‘The Agony of Kandhamal’ – produced by the dubious ‘India Foundation’ that has masterminded the Kandhamal cover-up.
The Swami’s statement on video has been parroted by various saffron agents on the murder from day one. Since the Swami had named even the Pope and Sonia Gandhi as people who considered him a threat to the Christianization of Kandhamal, it was easy to spread the rumour that Christians had killed him. Hence, a ‘supari’ (contract) killing was commissioned. That explained the various claims and denials of Maoist role in the murder. Anto said that the Sangh Parivar man at the grassroots, Parbat Panigraphi who played a key role in executing the conspiracy had to pay with his life.
While pursuing the saga of seven Christians –including one of them mentally challenged- being tried for the sensational murder, Anto Akkara stumbled upon the mammoth fraud from documents ‘gifted’ by one important functionary of the right wing organisation who rose to become an important trouble shooter of a party.
Anto also revealed two fictitious persons -Michael Parker and Brannon Parker – who were supposed to have authored one and the same book on Kandhamal under different titles. The ‘Harvest of Hate – Kandhamal in Crossfire’ by “Seattle-based anthropologist Michael Parker” was published by the India Foundation in 2009. It carried a ‘Publisher’s Note’ by India Foundation director who mentioned that Michael Parker was ‘born in India’ while the profile at the end of the book said that Parker was ‘born in the US’!
Anto Akkara also told reporters that since the fanciful publisher, India Foundation had no contact numbers, the only option was to contact the address that was printed in ‘Harvest of Hate’. He said that the persistent venture led to the shock of his life in 2015 when the anonymous flat – 343, Chandanwadi Apartment, Sector 10, Dwarka, New Delhi 110045- turned out to be owned by a person, presently in high office.
As a campaigner for justice in the Kandhamal massacre, anto has authored several books such as– ‘Who killed Swami Swami Laxmanananda’; ‘Kandhamal: a blot on Indian secularism’, and ‘Kandhamal craves for justice.’
In June 2017, Anto Akkara visited the ‘innocents’ in jail ‘incognito’. Four days later, three of them were shifted to different jails outside Kandhamal. Anto strongly believes the pending appeal of the innocents in Odisha High Court confirms that a mighty octopus is keeping a close watch on Kandhamal affairs – leaving a blot on the judicial system of the country. He said, “Kandhamal exposes the ugly of face of Indian democracy. Truth should not be kept under the carpet as the motto of the nation proclaims: ‘Satyameva Jayate’.”