A Christian family of three in Odisha, India, were allegedly attacked and killed after relatives accused them of bringing illness to the household following their conversion; neighbors, a surviving relative and local reports say the killings were brutal and tied to suspicion over faith rather than an ordinary property dispute.
Local accounts describe a household that had recently begun attending church after the father, Jitendra, reported feeling better following prayer. “Our being Christian had a huge role in the murders,” he said, according to his son Suguda’s account of the family’s belief about motive. Tensions reportedly rose when a cousin’s daughter fell ill and relatives blamed the family’s conversion for the sickness.
At one point, Jitendra called a pastor for help. “Jitendra called me and asked for prayers,” the pastor told Morning Star News. “I prayed for him over the phone and he felt much better.”
After Jitendra improved, the family’s church attendance apparently intensified neighbors’ hostility and old grievances surfaced, according to relatives. One cousin, named Badiya in family statements, accused Jitendra of using church practices to commit “witchcraft” that moved his illness to her child. That accusation reportedly created a direct threat: “Then on Sunday [the day of the killings], my uncle threatened my father and said that if his daughter did not recover, he would kill the entire family,” Suguda told Morning Star News.
The attack unfolded violently after a church service when several relatives armed with sticks and an axe entered the family home, survivors said. Suguda recounts that his teenage sister tried to protect their father and was attacked first; he described a family member using an axe. “My papa repeatedly said that he had done nothing, urging them to not kill him, but they did not heed his plea,” Suguda told Morning Star News.
Suguda’s telling lays out a grim sequence: the teenage daughter’s throat was cut, the mother was killed when she approached her child’s body, and Jitendra was chased down and struck fatally. Relatives who witnessed the scene were left traumatized, including a married daughter and two small children who were at home. Survivors say some relatives then told the remaining children to abandon their faith and return home, offering protection if they renounced Christianity.
Responses from villagers, court filings and police records differ on motive, with some statements framing the incident as a property dispute; survivors and advocates argue that religious animus was central. Suguda insisted on the faith-based angle: “We will not leave Christ,” Suguda told Morning Star News. “We will live as Christians, and when we die, we will die as Christians.”
Family members requested that the investigation be transferred to an independent agency, citing concerns about local bias and incomplete reporting. Suguda voiced frustration that the official report emphasized land conflict while ignoring what he called clear signs of hate-driven violence. “Though the crime appears to be premeditated, hate-driven and extremely brutal, the [police report] has reportedly projected it primarily as a property dispute, which does not reflect the full and true background of the incident,” Suguda said.
Human rights groups and monitoring organizations cite rising incidents of hostility and legal pressure against converts in India, noting that vague anti-conversion laws and social pressures make converts particularly vulnerable. Local Christian organizations recorded hundreds of incidents of harassment and violence tied to religious identity last year, and advocacy groups warn that converts face heightened risk of mob attacks. For families like this one, the combination of suspicion, accusation of witchcraft and long-standing local tensions can turn deadly very quickly.
