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3 min readBhubaneswarFeb 16, 2026 07:06 AM IST
The grieving family then performed the 13-year-old’s last rites and buried the body on their own registered land.
A Christian family was allegedly not allowed to bury a dead 13-year-old boy at the burial ground on Saturday amid prevailing tensions over a demand for the relocation of a church-cum-prayer hall at Kapena, a tribal-majority village in Odisha’s Nabarangpur district.
Kapena native Krutibas Santa, who is from the Christian community, lost his son following a prolonged illness early on Saturday morning. However, other residents of the village later blocked access to the burial ground and prevented the family from performing the last rites there.
The grieving family then performed the 13-year-old’s last rites and buried the body on their own registered land, following the intervention of the district administration and police, nearly 20 hours after his death, said family members. Krutibas had to sign a declaration that no religious symbol would be placed on the gravestone and that peace and order would be maintained in the village.
“The villagers, including some of the direct relatives of the deceased (who were not from the Christian community), were also opposing the burial of the minor’s body even on his own registered land. They demanded that the body be taken away, outside the village,” Umerkote additional tahsildar Nilambar Pujari told The Indian Express.
Pujari said that following the intervention of senior district administration officials and police, the body was buried on the family’s own registered land.
According to Krutibas, the villagers opposed the burial of his son’s body at the community cemetery because of the prevailing tension. “Whatever happened was inhuman. We felt very helpless,” Krutibas told The Indian Express.
The village has no separate burial ground for the Christian community. Krutibas said people from his community used one portion of the ground to bury their dead.
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The village has seen tensions over the past month with demands from the majority community, who make up around 250 households, demanding that the Christian church-cum-prayer hall be moved from its current location in the village. The village has around 30 Christian families.
The prayer hall, established in 2008, has been shut since January 25 to maintain law and order, officials said.
The majority community has said that they are planning a seven-day havan, for which a priest has purportedly said the church must be moved.
While police have been deployed in the village to avoid any untoward incident, the deployment has been revised following Saturday’s incident. Police said the situation in the village is under control at present.
Sujit Bisoyi is a Special Correspondent with the Indian Express and covers Odisha. His interests are in politics, policy and people’s stories. He tweets at @bisoyisujit87 ... Read More
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