'We were excited about Christmas, but...': Family of Chhattisgarh woman stabbed to death

The police have yet to confirm whether the woman was molested before her murder

By Sumi Rajappan: The family of Kusum Panna, who was found lying in a pool of blood with a pillow on her face and no clothes on in Chhattisgarh’s Korba by her brother early in the morning on December 24, was all prepared to ring in Christmas when tragedy struck. The brother is still struggling to gather some courage to talk about the incident.

Breaking the news to their parents was the most difficult, he recounted. “On December 24, when the milkman came and my sister didn't answer the door for over 10 minutes, I entered the house through the back. I saw my sister lying in a pool of blood with a pillow on her face. She had no clothes on her. I tried to wake her up after covering her body with a shawl, but she did not answer. There were major wounds on her which have shocked me for life. I screamed for help and then the neighbours and our parents arrived,” he said.

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Since she was found without any clothes, the brother suspects she was molested before the murder. However, the police have yet to confirm this and did not comment on it.

Budhram Panna, the distraught father, said their lives are now ruined. “We were very excited about the upcoming festivities, especially Christmas. We were preparing to celebrate it. We were looking forward to it. But, our lives have been ruined,” he said.

An inconsolable mother wants justice for her murdered daughter, who was all of 20. “The perpetrator should be behind bars. We await justice,” she said.

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As the Korba Police is trying to nab the accused, who has been on the run since the gory details of the incident became public, the incident has intensified the call for an anti-conversion law in Chhattisgarh.

The state’s Home Minister, Tamradwaj Sahu, told India Today TV: “It isn't love jihad since the victim belonged to a Christian family. The BJP is trying to spread disharmony in the state by giving it a religious twist. We have given strict orders to the officials and four teams have been constituted to trace Shahbaz, the accused.”

BJP's Rajesh Munat responded to Sahu and said that by dismissing the love jihad angle, the minister has fanned conversions in the state. “He is certainly supporting it. The conversion rate has gone up and the law and order situation is thwarted here, which is why our tribal daughters are now unsafe,” Munat claimed.

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The incident also coincided with a massive campaign organised in the villages of Narayanpur and Kondagaon to convert Christians back to Hinduism. This came after the Christian tribals gheraoed the office of the District Collector in Narayanpur to protest against the ongoing atrocities against the community.

Religious conversion has been in the limelight over the past few months in Chhattisgarh. According to the numbers from the United Christian Forum, there have been 478 instances of violence and harassment against the members of the community in 2021, over a 70% rise from 2020, when 279 such cases were reported on their helpline.

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