Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, July 2 (EMN): Noted Indian journalist and the author of the book “Who Killed Swami Laxmanananda”, Anto Akkara visited Dimapur on Monday to interact with the media persons in Nagaland. Akkara has been campaigning all over India for the release of the seven innocents who have been jailed for the last ten years for the crime they didn’t commit. The press conference was conducted at Press Point in Dimapur on July 2.
The activist on a signature campaign rallying for seven alleged convicted murderers who are allegedly incarcerated in jail for the murder of an Hindu priest in Oshisa in the year 2008.
The heart of the matterfor the uninitiated, the story goes like this. Swami Laxmanananda was a Hindu monk and a highly revered social leader who lived a life dedicated to tribal welfare. In 1968, he established an ashram at Chakapada in Kandhamal district of Odisha. He was regarded as highly regarded among the Hindu tribals of the area. Laxmanananda was assassinated on August 23 2008 along with four disciples at his kanyashram (girls’ school) at Tumudibandha, in Kandhamal district of Odisha.
Following the murder nearly 100 Christians were killed and 300 churches and 6000 Christian houses plundered during orchestrated violence that continued for weeks. Akkara alleged that it was the Vishva Hindu Parishad leader who biasedly announced the names of Swami killers fooling the nation about the Christian conspiracy. Akkara mentioned that the conspiracy theory was a fraud which was formulated to frame Christians.
The investigation team arrested seven innocent Christians— six of them illiterates and one mentally challenged— in 2008. A third judge of the trial court (after two judges were transferred) convicted the seven accused to life imprisonment on the basis of a fabricated Christian conspiracy theory without hardly any credible evidence in October 2013.
Akkara claimed that in mid 2015, two top police officials testified before the Judicial Inquiry commission that the allegations were false. It was stated that even the Hindu neighbours of the convicts questioned how the judicial system could convict their innocent neighbours and expressed readiness to be witnesses to prove their innocence in any court. Akkara admitted that the appeal of the innocents has been repeatedly postponed by the Odisha High Court since November 2013.
As a result Akkara has been fighting for the release of the seven innocents and he even acknowledged that he paid a visit to the innocents in June 2017. Akkara stated that the Kandhamal’s travesty of justice showed the ugly face of Indian democracy. He has started an online campaign in March 2016. Akkara affirmed that each online signature generates four instant emails to the Chief Justice of India, President, NHRC chairman, and High Court of Odisha for the release of the seven innocents.
The journalist has appealed everyone to do the seven innocents a favour by signing the online petition.. “India is a hypocritic country. India proclaims the ‘Rule of law’ but where is the rule of law? India stands for democracy but why is India jailing the innocents?” Anto Akkara’s statements were indeed a voice coming out of a soul who fights for truth and justice.
The jactivist has appealed everyone to do the seven innocents a favour by signing the online petition. “Truth should not be kept under the carpet as the motto of the nation proclaims: Satyameva Jayete,” Akkara said
