ICC Note: The High Court of Odisha State in India has ensured the distribution of compensation awarded to the Christians effected by the 2008 Kandhamal riots. In 2008, the murder of a Hindu nationalist leader sparked months of anti-Christian riots in the Kandhamal District of Odisha. As a result of the violence, over 100 Christians were killed and another 56,000 were displaced.  

05/09/2018 India (World Watch Monitor) – Following a long-fought campaign, the High Court of Odisha state in eastern India has ensured the disbursal of extra compensation awarded two years ago to dependents of 14 Christians killed in the widespread anti-Christian violence that engulfed Kandhamal district in 2008.

In addition, the court has forced the Odisha government to make available more than 153 million rupees (US$2.28 million) to pay compensation to about 6,000 people who lost family members, were injured or lost their homes in the riots.

“Today, justice has been granted to the victims of religious persecution in India. We welcome the decision of the High Court to compensate the families which suffered under the Kandhamal violence almost ten years ago,” the Indian branch of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said in a press statement on 4 May.

Tehmina Arora, a lawyer and the director of ADF India, who filed the case on behalf of relatives of the victims killed in the violence in Kandhamal, told World Watch Monitor on 7 May that the “enhanced compensation” ordered by the Supreme Court in 2016 had not been distributed to the families of those who were killed or injured in the riots, or who suffered the loss of their homes.

“We moved the High Court after the enhanced compensation ordered by the Supreme Court had not been disbursed to the dependent families,” she said.

According to various church documentations, nearly 100 Christians were killed following the murder of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in Kandhamal in August 2008, though the death toll recorded by the government stands at 39.

Touting the Hindu leader’s murder as a Christian conspiracy, Hindu fundamentalists attacked local Christians, destroyed their properties, and ordered them to recant their faith. During weeks of rioting, Hindu mobs led by fundamentalists plundered and torched 6,000 Christian houses and 300 churches, leaving more than 56,000 Christians displaced.

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