NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – A 26-year-old mother
became the fifth Christian in two months to be killed in India last
week when she refused to hand over her daughter to be raped by Hindus
who had assaulted the girl and other Christian minors, sources said.
Two
masked Hindus on July 20 slit the throat of Sunita Devi (name changed
for security reasons) in Regadi village, in Jharkhand state’s Khunti
District, when she came out her door at 1 a.m. and refused their demand
for her young daughter, according to the sources.
“The two
suspects had raped Devi’s minor daughter three times in the past besides
three other Christian juvenile girls, and all four of the minor girls
belong to my church,” pastor Jaymasih Nag of Grace Family Ministry (Anugrah Pariwaar Seva) told Morning Star News.
Devi’s
daughter told police the assailants had previously called Devi by phone
with demands that she hand over her daughter to be sexually abused,
according to a police report. That night her mother had refused to
answer her cell phone when the assailants called, according to the
daughter.
At about 1 a.m. Devi noticed two men at the window of
the room where she had been sleeping with her children and decided to
get up and send them away, Pastor Nag said, based on what the minor girl
had told him.
“Unaware of their intentions, Devi with the help of
her cell phone torch, stepped out of the house to shoo the men away,”
he said. “Devi’s daughter followed her mother. Before long, the men
attacked Devi and she fell on the ground dead. On seeing her mother fall
on the ground, the minor girl quickly ran inside the house and latched
the door from inside.”
The girl thought there could be more men at
a distance, but because of darkness she could see only two of them with
their faces covered, he said. According to police, after the assailants
killed Devi, they dragged her body into a nearby jungle, put her corpse
into a sack and threw it into a river about two miles away.
Police
found her body at 2 p.m. and sent it for autopsy.
Pastor Nag saw her corpse and said her throat was completely slit.
As
her husband works in Odisha state to provide for the family, Devi had
lived alone with their two sons and two daughters. She had kept quiet
about the torment her family was going through and was dealing with the
rapists herself, thinking they would not go to the extent of killing
her, Pastor Nag said.
Her husband and the Christian parents of
another rape victim went to police only after the killing of Devi,
sources said. On the basis of statements from the two girls, officers at
the Khunti police station registered a First Information Report and
arrested two suspects, station in-charge Jaideep Toppo said.
“At
the complaint of the two minor girls, we arrested two suspects, and they
have confessed to their crime of raping Devi’s daughter three times and
the other girl once,” Toppo told Morning Star News.
Asked if the suspects killed Devi, Toppo said only, “The two men are arrested for rape and not killing.”
Pastor
Nag pastors his church in nearby Saridkel. Devi and her family began
attending his church six years ago. Hers is one of eight Christian homes
in her village of 25 families.
Religious Motive
The
two men arrested are Hindus who live in Saridkel village, where Pastor
Nag has led regular worship services for the past 12 years, less than a
mile from Regadi.
Pastor Nag said that girls from Christian homes
are intentionally targeted by Hindus who influence followers of tribal
Sarna religion, trying to introduce Hindu gods into their rituals and
uniting with them against Christians.
“Why are all their targets
Christian girls?” he said. “Though the opposition might not be visible
outwardly, there is constant threat to believers in various forms.”
Other area Christian leaders also said the rapes and the killing were clear cases of persecution.
“Christians
are soft targets, and the underlying factor of such incidents are
always because of their faith,” a Christian leader from Ranchi, Sandeep
Oraon, told Morning Star News. “This belt of Jharkhand has been
witnessing rising persecution, and it is very real for the Christians
who are living it every day.”
Asked if the assaults against four
Christian girls and Devi pointed to a targeting of Christians, Station
in-charge Toppo told Morning Star News, “You are thinking too much.”
Fear of Reporting Rape
Pastor Nag noted the likelihood that there were more than two rapists.
“We
are yet not sure if the rapists are only two – there could be more than
two involved in the crime,” he said. “We are not sure if the rapists
have targeted just four Christian girls and not more.”
In a
culture that shames rape victims and facing threats from the assailants,
the victims did not quickly reveal the crimes. After Devi’s husband and
the other rape victim’s family took the bold step of approaching
police, two more families in his church, residents of Saridkel, informed
Pastor Nag that their minor daughters also had been victims of the two
men, Pastor Nag told Morning Star News.
“I am shocked that neither
Devi nor the other three families ever spoke to me about the traumatic
experience they and their children had been going through,” he said.
“They fear the adverse consequences their families will have to face for
speaking out. Devi probably was afraid to speak out, knowing well the
consequences she and her daughter would have to face, and thus she did
not approach the police.”
The rapes and killing have terrified Christians in the two villages and surrounding areas, he said.
Christians
begin facing opposition from Hindu and Sarna tribal religion villagers
from the moment they put their faith in Christ, Nag said. Opposition
also drove him from Saridkel for many years, forcing him to settle in a
nearby city, he said. Extremists threatened to damage his church
building, he said, and only in January did he dare return to his native
Saridkel.
Political Pressure
A well-placed source told Morning Star News that there is immense political pressure in this case.
“Initially
the police had arrested four suspects, but they let the other two go
after some financial ‘give-and-take,’” the source said.
On
Saturday (July 25) the arrested men were taken to court to record their
statements, and a member of the Legislative Assembly belonging to the
Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party accompanied them in support,
the source said.
Station in-charge Toppo said he was not aware of any confession to homicide.
Though
the autopsy was performed the same day the body was discovered, July
20, Toppo said he was still awaiting the autopsy report.
“The
weapon used for killing is not clear yet; wounds on the deceased’s neck
and back were visible,” he told Morning Star News. “The rest will be
clear in the report.”
Pastor Nag said he found police proceedings were “slow” and “ignoring the obvious.”
“Though
it is obvious that these men brutally murdered Devi after she refused
to give her daughter to them, police are still slow in taking action on
the ‘killing’ front,” he told Morning Star News.
Asked about this
allegation, Toppo reiterated, “Investigations are underway, and nothing
can be said until the investigation is complete.”
Rapes
Devi was laid to rest on her own farmland on Tuesday (July 21). She is survived by her husband and four children, ages 2 to 13.
On
June 28 she had sent her daughter to buy some vegetables at a nearby
market. The girl went with a neighbor friend, and on their way the two
suspects abducted them and took them to a secluded place, where they
locked them in a room, sources said.
The two girls were kept in the room, which was locked from outside, with men taking turns to guard it until 9 p.m.
“These
men entered the room at 9 in the night and raped both the girls,”
Pastor Nag said. “This was the third time that Devi’s daughter was being
raped and first time when her friend became their victim.”
The
families of the girls searched for them throughout the night. The girls
were released the next morning and informed their parents upon reaching
their homes.
Devi’s daughter told her the rapists threatened severe harm if they told anybody about the assault, the pastor said.
“It
was already traumatizing for Devi and her daughter that just like
previous three times, the minor girl could be abducted from anywhere,
anytime and dragged to a secluded place to be raped again and again,”
Pastor Nag told Morning Star News. “It was since then that Devi started
to receive constant phone calls from these men demanding for her
daughter to be given to them for their sexual pleasure.”
Informed
of the previous rapes, Toppo expressed surprise and told Morning Star
News that the complainants had not reported the prior two rapes, and
that police would investigate when they do so.
Devi’s husband has
taken his four children out of the village, and they are living in an
undisclosed location. He has received constant phone calls from the
suspects’ friends and supporters pressuring him to withdraw the charges,
Pastor Nag said.
“There are threats to his and his children’s lives,” the pastor said.
Including the death under mysterious circumstances of
a Christian woman in Chhattisgarh state the last week of May, Devi’s
death is the fifth religiously motivated killing of a Christian in India
in two months. On July 10 in Maharashtra state, Maoists killed pastor Munshi Devu Tado in Bhatpar village, Gadchiroli District.
In Bari village, Jharkhand state, followers of tribal religion on June 7 abducted and killed Kande
Munda. On the night of June 4 in Odisha state, followers of tribal
religion abducted 16-year-old Sambaru Madkami for his faith before stabbing and stoning him to death.
The
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on April 28 urged
the U.S. State Department to add India as a “Country of Particular
Concern” to its list of nations with poor records of protecting
religious freedom.
India is ranked 10th on Christian
support organization Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List of the countries
where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country was 31st in
2013, but its position has worsened since Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya
Janata Party came to power in 2014.
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