SC orders additional compensation to 2008 Kandhamal riot victims

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Odisha government to pay additional compensation to the victims of 2008 anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal in the state.

A bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice U U Lalit said that the victims of the communal strife should be given additional compensation as the earlier compensation was inadequate. The verdict came on a petition filed by Archbishop Rachel Cheenath relating to violence in Kandhamal district and other areas of the state.

Several districts, including Kandhamal, had witnessed violence in 2008 when a local leader and VHP member Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was killed by unidentified assailants on August 23, 2007. Members of Christian community were attacked in the aftermath of the killing of Saraswati.