‘Chennai: A moving documentary that tells the amazing story of the ‘Release of Kandhamal’s 7 INNOCENTS and Power of Prayer’ was premiered in Chennai on December 10 – on International Human Rights day.
The 30-minute documentary brought out by journalist Anto Akkara was released at the Assembly of Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA) in Chennai during Dec 9-11 that dealt with the theme ‘Journalists called to be prophetic Communicators’.
“This documentary recounts the travails behind bars during the 11 years the 7 Innocent Christians of Kandhamal suffered due to a political fraud,” said journalist author Akkara who has carried on a spirited campaign for their release with the website www.release7innocents.com.
Seven Innocent Christians – BHASKAR SUNAMAJHI, BIJAY KUMAR SANSETH, BUDDHADEV NAYAK, DURJO SUNAMAJHI, GORNATH CHALENSETH, MUNDA BADAMAJHI AND SANATHAN BADAMAJHI – profiled in the documentary were arrested, fraudulently accused of killing 81-year old Swami Lakshmanananda on Janmashtami night of August 2008, that was used by saffron outfits to justify the protracted Kandhamal bloodshed.
These seven Christians – six of them illiterates and one of them dumb – had been convicted to ‘life imprisonment’ in 2013 by a third judge in dubious verdict after two judges had been transferred and Fast Track Court shut down.
Despite widespread criticism of the ‘absurd’ verdict, Odisha High Court denied bail to the ‘innocent’ Christians a second time in 2018, forcing the Christian legal team to move the Supreme Court which released them on bail in 2019 – 11 years after their arrest.
“Without losing hope and displaying unflinching faith, the illiterate Christians even converted the jail into a prayer chapel trusting in the Lord,” said Akkara who has accompanied the innocents behind bars and their families over a decade.
Besides launching a Prayer Campaign for the release of the 7 Innocents, the St Titus Brandsma award winning journalist Akkara has exposed the Fraud and Travesty of Justice’ in Kandhamal with ‘Innocents Imprisoned’ on the 10th anniversary of Kandhamal in 2018 and dubbed it into Odia, Hindi and Malayalam.
The documentaries about Kandhamal persecution and incredible witness of the valiant Christians in different languages are linked at the Youtube page ‘Bear Witness to the Truth’.