The murder took place in the rural village of Toylanka, where the conversion of a branch of a family to Christianity did not go down well with the rest. The victim was mortally wounded while working in the fields. Relatives even opposed her burial.
Raipur (India) – A 22-year-old Christian woman, Bindu Sodhi, was killed with a hammer by fanatical Hindu relatives because of her Christian faith.
The murder took place on 24 June in Toylanka, a village in Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh.
In a complaint to the district's police chief, relatives of the murder victim said her family had been harassed and threatened by other relatives since they became Christians four years ago.
Despite various complaints by Sori's family to the local police station, no action was taken against the harassers.
With the onset of the rainy season, some relatives even tried to prevent Sori's family from ploughing the fields. When they did it anyway, enraged relatives attacked them with arrows and axes.
The driver of the tractor and some others in the group managed to escape, but not Sori. Two men reached her, attacked her, and killed her. The anti-Christian relatives also prevented the victim’s immediate family from burying her.
It is unfortunately common in Indian villages for Hindu extremists to deny Christian families the right to bury their loved ones unless they return to Hinduism.
This is happening despite a ruling by the Chhattisgarh High Court on 24 April that “Article 21 of the Constitution of India includes the right of a person to have a decent burial”.
It goes on to say that the “Right to life implies a meaningful life with human dignity … and this right also extends to a person who is dead.
Photo: Flickr / James Hansen (CCAFS)