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Hindu organisations accused of hate campaign

Special Correspondent

BHUBANESWAR: A group of six Christian leaders on Thursday accused Hindu fundamentalist groups of carrying out a malicious hate campaign against the members of their community.

At a press conference here, they said a day after reports appeared in the media in which a Maoist leader claimed responsibility for the killing of Lakshmanananda Saraswati, the Orissa unit of the Hindu Jagaran Samukhya released a document at a press conference claiming involvement of the Church in criminal activities.

The claim made by the Samukhya was found to be baseless as the Bethikala Church in Kandhamal, which was mentioned in the document, did not conduct the alleged meeting on May 25, they said.

The Church’s leaders after perusing the documents found the content to be “entirely fabricated and their signatures had been forged,” they said.

“We strongly condemn this attitude of the Hindu fundamentalist organisations attempting to drag Christians and the Church into this crime purposefully by fanning elements of hate to sustain the campaign against Christians,” they said in a joint statement.

Those who addressed the press conference are Father Joseph Kalathil, Vicar General, Archbishop House, Bhubaneswar; Swarupananda Patra, president of Orissa Minority Forum; Father Savari Muthu, Catholic Church, Bhubaneswar; Father Prafulla Kumar Sabhapati, president, Bethikala Parish Council, Kandhamal; Bubhudutta Das of Utkal Christian Council; and Prafulla Kumar Nayak, general secretary, Bethikala Parish Council, Kandhamal.

They said that they had already issued a legal notice to the Samukhya and would file a defamation case if they did not get any satisfying reply.

Samukhya president Ashok Sahu had alleged that the killing of Lakshmanananda Saraswati was planned at the Bethikala Church in Kandhamal on May 25.

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