Orissa: police threatens wife of clergyman murdered by Hindu extremists
G. Udayari (AsiaNews) – Anti-Christian discrimination continues in Orissa. Police in Pokala (Kandhamal) told Nimata Pradhan, the wife of Saul Pradhan, a Pentecostal clergyman killed on 11 January, to stop asking questions about her husband’s murder and instead withdraw her charges against Marda Pradhan and Baiju Mallick.
“We went to the police station four times to get the post-mortem report on my husband,” Nimata told AsiaNews, but “instead of giving it to us, they advised us to withdraw our complaint. We refused to do it.”
In order to cover up the murder, police manipulated the investigation, claiming the clergyman had drowned. His body was found near a pond.
Relatives and members of his congregation say that when his body was found the legs were broken and his face and chest showed injuries.
Rev Saul Pradhan had recently been threatened by local Hindu village leaders who had ordered him to convert.
In addition, some witnesses said that Manoj Pradhan, a Hindu extremist with the Barathya Janatha Party who played a leading role in the 2008 anti-Christian pogroms, was instrumental in concealing the clergyman’s body. Manoj Pradhan was recently convicted on murder charges.
When he was still at liberty, he ordered the mortuary doctor in charge of the post-mortem examination to hide the body and bury it right away.
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