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Gladys Staines denies conversions in Orissa

Gladys Staines, widow of slain Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines, has denied any conversions in the Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts of Orissa.

Deposing before the Justice D P Wadhwa Commission probing the killings of Graham Staines and his two sons, Gladys said she did not like to use the term conversion. It was rather that ''some people of Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar had chosen to follow the teachings of the Bible and therefore became Christians''.

Gladys said that, in the jungle camps, speakers came from different places to take Bible classes, and give advice on spiritual upliftment and health matters.

To a question on whether any baptism had taken place in the jungle camps, Gladys evaded it saying the jungle camps were held only for Christians.

Gladys, who came from Baripada to depose before the Commission, told newsmen that she was quite happy with the progress of the panel.

First secretary and consul of the Australian high commission in Delhi, David Poulter, who came to Bhubaneshwar, said he was very much encouraged by the progress of the Commission.

He explained that the government of Australia as well as the people of that country had full faith in the inquiry Commission and hoped justice would be done.

Gladys became a little emotional when her attention was drawn to the allegation that Dr Vinod Das, a close friend of Graham Staines and a honorary doctor attached to the Evangelical Missionary Society at Baripada, had made on the lifestyle of her husband.

She said, "I feel very hurt when someone speaks against my husband; I am surprised and cannot understand why Dr Das has made such an observation."

Dr Das in his deposition before the Commission had stated that Staines hated other religions and was a collector of modern gadgets.

The director of the Foreign Contribution Regulatory Act, Sanjeev Dutta, has submitted that there were discrepancies in the accounts of the leprosy home run by Graham Staines on behalf of the Evangelical Missionary Society of India at Baripada.

Deposing before the Commission, Dutta said that after going through the accounts of the leprosy home, he found there was a mixing of foreign and local contributions in the balance sheet, and that no separate balance sheet, accounts and ledger were maintained.

The leprosy home's chartered accountant Umakant Naik, in his deposition before the Commission, said, ''Though I am working at the place since 1994, I do not know much about the staff strength and accounts.''

Naik said Graham Staines had maintained the accounts himself. He said he had no knowledge how much the leprosy home was spending on each patient, and whether the leprosy home was exempted from income tax.

The Commission asked the state council to procure and submit the accounts of the mission.

UNI

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