The Supreme Court of India on May 9 granted bail to Gornath Chalanseth, one of the seven innocent Christians languishing in jail for a decade due to the alleged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hard-line Hindu group, fraud on Kandhamal, on bail application led by ADF (Alliance Defending Freedom) legal team.

The New Delhi-based ADF, a Christian rights’ group and an advocacy organization, protects fundamental freedoms and promotes the inherent dignity of all people.

Gornath along with six others including mentally challenged Munda Badamajhi had been convicted to life imprisonment by a third judge in 2013 abruptly after two judges had been transferred.

While their bail pleas had been twice rejected by the Odisha High Court, Cuttack, last in December 2018, their appeals against the conviction by subversion of the judicial system has been dragging on for over five years in the Odisha High Court, said Anto Akkara, a senior journalist and author, who has been advocating help for releasing those seven innocents, among others, including ADF.