After a pastor fell into a coma following harassment by hard-line Hindus in southern India, a gang of Hindu extremists in the same state beat another pastor after he prayed for healing at the home of an elderly church member, in January.
Police altered the statement of the Revd Gandham Padma Rao, 49, so that the ten young men who assaulted him were described only as drunken youths, not members of a Hindu nationalist group, as the pastor had stated.
Pastor Rao fulfilled church duties for two days after the assault before seeking medical help, and doctors told family members that his blood pressure was so high that he could have suffered a haemorrhage had he waited any longer. Another pastor, 47-year-old K.A. Swamy of Hyderabad, fell into a coma after suffering high blood pressure and a brain haemorrhage hours after Hindu extremists threatened him with highly offensive language and took him to police for distributing Bibles.
