A Christian woman was stripped and beaten until she lost consciousness

By News from the Morning Stars, Friday, January 10, 2025

NEW DELHI – Hindu extremists in eastern India stripped and beat a tribal Christian woman, tying her to a tree when she regained her clothes, and continued to torture her until she lost consciousness, sources said.

While Subhasini Singh (40) was meeting Gobinda Singh’s house for Christmas dinner with five other families in Chhankhanpur village in Balasore district of Odisha on December 26, five Hindus, including Badal Kumar Panda from Nilagiri, barged into the property and started interrogate them, said Pastor Sadhu Sundar Singh. Hindu nationalists accused them of forced conversion, started destroying the house and attacked Gobinda Singh, he added.

“The men brutally attacked Gobinda, his wife and teenage daughter,” said Pastor Singh of New Living Church in Nilagiri area of ​​Balasore, who missed lunch minutes before the attack because he was feeling unwell.

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The mob then attacked Subhasini Singh, first smearing Christmas cake on her face and then beating her, she added. As the villagers stood and watched, the attackers also beat Gobinda Singh’s sister Sukanti Singh and her husband with shoes, sandals, slaps and fists and kicked them, Subhasini Singh said.

“They kicked me at least three times between the legs and gave me several blows on my chest, legs, face, knees and head,” Subhasini Singh told Morning Star News.

Still beating her, the men dragged Subhasini Singh into the room where she lost consciousness due to the assault, she added. When she regained consciousness, she found herself naked.

“The last thing I remember is three men beating me in the room,” she said, her voice trembling. “When I regained consciousness, some women were dragging me naked out of the room.”

Subhasini Singh screamed and then a girl came and threw clothes at her, she added.

“I begged the women to let me wear a blouse and a sari before they dragged me out of the house and made a public display of me,” she said, sobbing. “I felt pain from head to toe. My private parts also hurt. At the time, I couldn’t say whether I had experienced something terrifying while I was unconscious.

Sukanti Singh and her husband, also Christians, were brutally attacked. Subhasini Singh said that when she got dressed, the mob tied her and Sukanti Singh to a tree and continued to beat them, hanging an image of Christ on the tree above their heads.

Videos on social media show the full extent of brutality. In one video, both women are tied to a tree and forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram (Welcome Lord Rama)”. Another video shows the brutality of Subhasini Singh’s beating. Her accusers are also shown ordering Sukanti Singh and her husband to hit Subhasini Singh, otherwise they would attack them instead.

“They forced Sukanti and her husband to hit me, and they both did,” said Subhasini Singh, adding that the beatings left her unconscious three times.

The video shows Sukanti Singh’s husband in torn clothes, who is seriously injured in the attack.

Someone in the crowd called the police hotline, said Bishop Pallab Lima, secretary general of the minority cell of the national political party Biju Janata Dal.

“If the police had not intervened, the men would have burned Subhasini alive,” Lima told Morning Star News.

Chitta Nayak, deputy sub-inspector of Nilgiri police station, told the media that his office received a call that “some people are engaging in religious conversion.”

“I was asked to hurry there,” Nayak reportedly said. “I saw two women tied to a tree and I brought them with me to our police station, but later we realized that the area where the incident took place was under the jurisdiction of the Remuna police station. We handed them over to the police in Remun.”

Pastor Sadhu Sundar Singh, who leads the independent church where Subhasini Singh serves as an evangelist, said: “It was all intentional.”

“Even though (Gobinda) Singh continuously told the attackers that there was no (forced) conversion in his house and that he had invited Subhasini for a meal, the attackers continued to attack the three Christians,” Pastor Singh said News from the Morning Stars.

Victims accused of a crime

Following a complaint by Hindu extremists, police immediately arrested three Christians. Both women were then sent for medical attention.

“No proper medical examination was conducted,” Subhasini Singh said. “Even though I was in excruciating pain, the doctor did not prescribe a single painkiller or examine my wounds or pain in my private parts.”

Based on Panda’s complaint, the police registered multiple charges against Subhasini Singh and Sukanti Singh under Section 4 of the Odisha Freedom of Religion Act, 1967. Additional charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) included “intentional and malicious insult to religion” (Section 299), “joint criminal responsibility” (§ 3 point 5)) and “criminal intimidation” (§ 299). 351 section 2).

Gobinda Singh, who has repeatedly denied any attempted forced conversion during the attack, filed his own complaint with the Remuna police against the attackers on December 27, maintaining his stance.

Lima reported that it was only after video of the attack went viral that seven people were arrested, including Panda, the complainant in the second case. On January 8, a judge rejected their bail application.

An additional 10-15 people are reported to have been booked under various sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and, in this case, BNS.

Despite Gobinda Singh’s assurances, local media termed the case as a “forced conversion”, said a dejected Pastor Singh.

Subhasini Singh, a resident of Mukhapada village located 3.2 km from Chhankhanpur, is a traditional masseuse who accepted Christ in 2017. She said she has been “evangelizing (…) since then when God gave me the opportunity.”

Though he is not a Christian, Gobinda Singh said he is aware of Subhasini’s faith. In a previous light-hearted moment, he had mentioned that she had never invited his family to church for Christmas and had suggested that they host the celebration at his house instead. Therefore, Subhasini came to this celebration with Christmas cake.

The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), towards non-Hindus has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014. religious people, rights defenders say.

India ranks 11th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2024 global watch list of countries where it is hardest to be a Christian. In 2013, the country was ranked 31st, but its position deteriorated after Modi came to power.

This article was originally published at News from the Morning Stars