Sangha Pariwar rejects Maoists' claim, insists Church behind killing
Bhubaneswar (Orissa) : Hindu Jagaran Samukhya, a frontal organisation of the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangha, was on Monday virtually rejected the claim of CPI (Maoists) Orissa chief Sabyasachi Panda and insisted that the church behind the brutal murder of Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati and four of his disciples at Jalespata Ashram in Kandhamal district on August 23.
The strong warded reaction of Sangha Pariwar came a day after rebel leader Panda, claimed that they had killed Swamiji as he did not respond to them and continue his activities in tribal areas.
Speaking at a press conference here, HJS State president Ashok Sahu lambasted on Orissa Government for having shown utmost apathy and indifference in nabbing the killers of the Swamiji even after lapse of 45 days of the gruesome murder of five persons.
He accused that there has been a systematic effort to shift the blame of killing of Swamiji and four of his associates from the Church to the Maoists. Few days back, some handouts were distributed purported to have been printed by the Maoist groups claiming responsibility for killing Swamiji.
When the public opinion was visibly not influenced by such propaganda, a section of the electronic media have projected the local Maoist leader for having owned responsibility for such killings after 45 days of the occurrence,said Sahu, a retired IPS officer said.
He questioned the government's inaction and silence on such open claims by terrorist groups. Assuming the claims to be true the gravity and nature of the heinous crime has hardly reduced by shifting the blame.
Sahu reiterated his earlier allegations that the local Church authorities including the Archbishop are closely associated with the murder by hiring some Christian Maoists who have used AK-47 to eliminate Swamiji, he alleged.
Though in all Maoist affected places in Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Andhra Pradesh the Maoists attack the CRPF personnel by ambush and laying land mines, But in Kandhmal district if Maoists are present, how come there is no such attack or encounter in last more than a month where seventy companies of the CRPF are deployed since 25th August 2008, the former IPS officer reasoned.
He also displayed a register that contained the minutes of the quarterly meetings of one Betticola Church under G.Udaygiri Police Station in the Kandhmal District.
The minutes of the meeting dated 25/5/2008 reveals that 17 participants took a resolution at the direction of their archbishop to award suitable punishment by sacrificing the 'Satanic' sinners at the altar of the Lord to propitiate him on an appointed day.
Accordingly, it was further resolved to fix the date and the 23rd August was fixed. On success of the efforts the Christian dioceses would celebrate the day as a 'Victory Day' amidst merriments.
Copies of the transliterated version of the minutes, in English besides the true photostat copies were distributed to the Media Persons.
Sahu crticised the remarks of the Prime Minister on the happenings in Orissa as a 'National Shame'.
Sahu said that killing of an eighty-four years old unarmed saint along with a woman and three other disciples should have been condemned as a 'National Shame' in a country where saints have all along been worshipped as symbol of Godhead.
Commenting on the alleged rape of the 'Nun' Shri Sahu said that any civilized society would condemn the alleged rape on any woman. But the 'nun' never claimed the alleged offence in her earliest version.
Moreover, she was staying with fr. Thomas Chellan before the incident and went away to Kerala with him soon after the incident. Unless she comes to the investigators and co-operates with the team it is difficult to substantiate such after thoughts.
Such allegation had surfaced even earlier in Orissa in Baripada on February 4, 1999 and the investigations falsified the allegation of 'rape on the Nun', he added.
