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Conversions may have led to Staines murder, missionary tells Wadhwa panel

A missionary of the Indian Evangelical Mission, Baripada, has told the Justice Wadhwa Commission that conversions could have been the possible reason for the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his two sons at Manoharpur in Orissa's Keonjhar district.

Deposing before the Commission, John Mathai said as the population of Christians was increasing in both Keonjhar and Mayurbahanja districts, Staines could have been murdered to halt the spread of Christianity.

''Conversions were mostly confined to illiterate and poor people and only four to five educated tribals were converted as far as I know,'' he said.

Mathai said new churches had come up in the area after Staines' visit and there was constant hostility between Christians and non-Christians over the issue of conversion.

He recollected an incident. ''While we were organising a jungle camp at Baliposi in Mayurbhanj district, a group of youths threatened to disrupt the camp,'' he said. ''One of the youths had the abbreviation 'RSS' printed on his shirt.''

He said they had to stop the camp for a day following the threat as the Thakurmunda police expressed their inability to provide any protection. There was tension between Christians and non-Christians in Basantpur under the Thakurmunda police station in 1992 also, he added.

When he, his wife and another person were going to the Basantpur church some time back, some 10 to 15 youths, armed with sticks, had prevented them from praying and detained him for some hours.

But he said he did not lodge any complaint with the police as he felt that it would aggravate the situation and irritate the people further.

Deposing before the Commission, Dr Nikunja Kishore Mohanty, who did the post-mortem of Staines and his sons, said he did not find any bullet injury on the bodies. There was no smell of any inflammable substance like kerosene or petrol.

He said the bodies were soiled with ash and substance like straw and other things.

Dr Mohanty said the condition of the bodies had indicated that they might have been burnt for four to six hours.

Anandpur Sadar circle inspector Sushil Kumar Mohanty also deposed before the Commission yesterday.

UNI

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