No justice for Christians subjected to a pogrom in India

The release of two suspects accused of raping a nun has sparked outrage among Christians in India, stated the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) on Friday in Göttingen. The two employees of the radical Hindu Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) were on trial for raping nun Meena Barwa during a pogrom of Hindu extremists against Christians in August 2008. They were acquitted on 9 May 2011 by the Supreme Court of the state of Orissa due to lack of evidence. This act of violence against the nun had triggered outrage beyond the country's borders as well.

"This scandalous acquittal will fuel serious doubts about the independence and reliability of the Indian judiciary," stated Ulrich Delius, head of the STP's Asia section. Out of 22 suspects investigated in this case, 17 have already been acquitted due to lack of evidence. "This is a slap in the face for all women in India and for everyone who takes a stand for justice. If India wants to preserve its reputation as the largest democracy in Asia, it must not deny justice to the victims of violence perpetrated by Hindu extremists."

The acquittal of the rape suspects is not an exceptional case. Almost three years after the pogrom by radical Hindus in the Kandhamal District (state of Orissa) in eastern India, only one suspect has been actually sentenced in twenty murder trials. Christian Adivasi indigenous peoples filed charges in 3,232 cases of attacks by radical Hindus, in spite of massive intimidation by police and other authorities. Most of the charges involved arson, plundering, assault and battery, rape and murder. Only 1,541 of the complaints were registered and processed by the police. In 327 cases, investigations were initiated and completed; 169 trials against radical Hindus ended in acquittal due to lack of evidence. Only in 86 cases were the accused convicted, but most of them for lesser crimes and not for the crime they had been charged with.

In the pogrom of August 2008, as many as 6,000 houses of Christian Adivasi indigenous peoples in 400 villages were burnt down. Furthermore, 296 churches were destroyed by radical Hindus.