BHUBANESWAR: A witness to the murder of an Australian missionary and his two sons in eastern India two years ago has said that she saw two of the suspects at the scene, including a teenager already jailed on a separate murder charge.
Basi Tudu told a judge Friday that Ojen Hansda and Chenchu, 15, were part of a mob of nearly 60 people who set fire to the jeep in which Graham Staines, 58, and his sons Philip 10, and Timothy, 8, were sleeping. Chenchu only goes by one name.
Tudu said she could see from her house the attackers crowding around the vehicle shortly before it was set on fire. The mob then left the scene chanting "Victory for Bajrangwali" and "Victory for Dara Singh," referring to a popular monkey-faced Hindu God and the key defendant in the murder case.
Staines and his sons were sleeping in the jeep after a Bible study meeting in the village of Manoharpur in the eastern state of Orissa on January 23, 1999.
Chenchu is already serving a 14-year prison sentence on a separate murder conviction. He is appealing the conviction and has denied involvement in the murder of Staines and his sons.
Hansda and Chenchu are among 13 co-defendants being tried for murdering Staines and his two children. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death by hanging.
Staines' killing followed a series of attacks on churches and Christian missionary institutions in several Indian states that began in 1998. Hindu fanatics allegedly attacked churches after whipping up a campaign against missionaries whom they accused of converting impoverished Indians to Christianity.
Christians represent about 2 percent of India's more than 1 billion people. (AP)