In its original investigation, the CB had filed charges against 30 people. Police however managed to arrest only 22. Eventually, 17 were released on bail.

For Mgr John Barwa, archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar, such a ruling is a “setback to the already slow course of justice, a heartbreak for those who suffered. The situation now appears discouraging and pessimism is growing about the future. Wounds are still deep and scars are still there. Healing will be complete only when justice is done.”

The archbishop heard about the release of the two men this morning. He was in Kandhamal, at the diocesan pastoral centre, where Sister Meena works. “Such a ruling is a serious blow to the dignity of women in our beloved nation,” he explained. India is a place “where religious freedom, tolerance and peaceful coexistence of people of different religions have always been a part of its rich cultural heritage.”

Sister Meena, a Servite nun, was able to talk about the violence against her only two months after the fact, in October 2008.

She has urged India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take on the case, because local police is friendly with her attackers.

For Sajan K George, president of the Council of India Christians (GCIC), “The state of Orissa is also responsible for the anti-Christian attacks in surrounding states.”

He made the statement after the GCIC organised a sit-in and hunger strike in Bhubaneshwar to put pressure on the central government to investigate radical Hindu violence (see Nirmala Carvalho, “2008 Orissa massacres: Christians fast for justice,” in AsiaNews, 6 May 2011).