Hindu nationalists tied Subhasini Singh and Sukanti Singh (R) to a tree in Chhankhanpur village, Odisha state, India on Dec. 26, 2024. (Morning Star News screenshot)
NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Hindu extremists in eastern India on Dec. 26 stripped and beat a tribal Christian woman, tying her to a tree after she recovered her clothes and continuing to torture her till she lost consciousness, sources said.
While Subhasini Singh, 40, was meeting at the home of Gobinda Singh for a Christmas luncheon with five other families in Chhankhanpur village, Balasore District, Odisha state on Dec. 26, five Hindus including Badal Kumar Panda of Nilagiri intruded onto the property and began questioning them, said Pastor Sadhu Sundar Singh. The Hindu nationalists accused them of forced conversion, began to damage the house and assaulted Gobinda Singh, he said.
“The men brutally assaulted Gobinda, his wife and teenage daughter,” said Pastor Singh of New Living Church in the Nilagiri area of Balasore, who had left the luncheon a few minutes before the attack as he was feeling ill.
The mob then attacked Subhasini Singh, first smearing a Christmas cake across her face and then beating her, she said. As villagers stood watching, the assailants also beat Gobinda Singh’s sister Sukanti Singh and her husband with shoes, sandals, slaps and fists, as well as kicked them, Subhasini Singh said.
“They kicked me between my legs at least three times, and landed several blows on my chest, legs, face, knees and my head,” Subhasini Singh told Morning Star News.
Still beating her, the men dragged Subhasini Singh into a room, where she lost consciousness from the assault, she said. When she regained consciousness, she found herself naked.
“Last I remember was that three men were beating me in the room,” she said in a shaky voice. “When I regained consciousness, I was being dragged out of the room naked by some women.”
Subhasini Singh screamed, and a girl came and threw her clothes at her, she said.
“I pleaded to the women to allow me to wear my blouse and saree before they drag me outside the house and make a public show of me,” she said, sobbing. “I was in pain from head to toe. My private parts were also paining. I couldn’t say then if I went through something horrifying while I was unconscious.”
Sukanti Singh and her husband, also Christians, were severely assaulted. Subhasini Singh said that after she put on her clothes, the mob then tied her and Sukanti Singh to a tree and continued striking them, hanging a picture of Christ on the tree above their heads.
Videos on social media captured the full extent of the brutality. In one video, both women are seen tied to a tree, forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram [Hail, lord Rama].” Another video shows the brutality of the beating Subhasini Singh suffered. Her accusers also are shown ordering Sukanti Singh and her husband to hit Subhasini Singh or else they would assault them instead.
“They forced Sukanti and her husband to hit me, and they both did,” Subhasini Singh said, adding that she lost consciousness three times from the beatings.
The video shows Sukanti Singh’s husband with clothes torn as he is badly injured from the assault.
Someone in the crowd called the police hotline number, said Bishop Pallab Lima, general secretary of the minority cell of Biju Janata Dal, a national political party.
“If police had not intervened timely, the men would have burned Subhasini alive,” Lima told Morning Star News.
Chitta Nayak, assistant sub-inspector of the Nilgiri police station, told media that his office received a call that “some people were engaging in religious conversion.”
“I was asked to rush there,” Nayak reportedly said. “I saw two women tied to a tree and brought them with me to our police station, but later we realized that the area where the incident took place fell under [the jurisdiction of the] Remuna police station. We handed them over to the Remuna police.”
Pastor Sadhu Sundar Singh, who leads the independent church where Subhasini Singh serves as an evangelist, said, “This was all deliberate.”
“Though [Gobinda] Singh constantly told the attackers that there was no [forced] conversion taking place in his house and that he had invited Subhasini over for a meal, the attackers continued to target the three Christians,” Pastor Singh told Morning Star News.
Victims Charged with Crime
Following a complaint by the Hindu extremists, police immediately took the three Christians into custody. The two women were then sent for medical attention.
“No proper medical examination was done,” Subhasini Singh said. “Despite my being in excruciating pain, the doctor did not prescribe a single pain relief medicine nor examined my wounds or hurts in my private parts.”
Based on Panda’s complaint, 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 “deliberate and malicious insult of a religion” (Section 299), “joint criminal liability” (Section 3(5)), and “criminal intimidation” (Section 351(2)).
Gobinda Singh, who repeatedly denied any forced conversion attempts during the attack, filed his own complaint with Remuna police against the assailants on Dec. 27, reiterating his stance.
Only after the video of the assault went viral were seven people, including Panda, the complainant in the other case, arrested, said Lima. A judge rejected their plea for bail on Wednesday (Jan. 8).
An additional 10-15 people were reportedly booked under various sections of Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and the BNS in this case.
Despite Gobinda Singh’s assertions, local media projected the case as one of “forced conversion,” said a dejected Pastor Singh.
Subhasini Singh, a resident of Mukhapada village, 2 miles from Chhankhanpur, is a traditional massage therapist who accepted Christ in 2017. She said she has since “evangelized as and when God gave me opportunity.”
Though not a Christian, Gobinda Singh said he was aware of Subhasini’s faith. In a prior light-hearted moment, he had mentioned that she had never invited his family to church for Christmas and had suggested hosting a celebration in his home instead. Hence Subhasini had arrived with a Christmas cake for the festivities.
The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.
India ranked 11th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position worsened after Modi came to power.
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The post Hindu Nationalists Tie Up, Brutalize Christian Woman in India appeared first on Morningstar News.
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