The communal violence triggered by alleged conversions left many dead and thousands homeless in Odisha's Kandhamal district.
Dressed in a simple green and white saree, 35-year-old Kanakarekha is way far from her home in Odisha's remote tribal district of Kandhamal. On August 27, 2008, her husband was murdered in brutal communal violence triggered by alleged conversions in the state that left many dead and thousands homeless.
With two small children to care for, she is still petrified to return to her village. "It's been 7 years but I still haven't been able to return home. I fear for my life," she says looking over her shoulder.
The victims have now petitioned the President accusing the state of not doing enough. They hope closed cases will be re-opened and compensation will be increased.
They claim that of the 35 murder cases registered, 33 were closed by the police due to lack of evidence. The only two investigated cases led to the conviction of 10 people, all of whom were sentenced to life imprisonment but are out on bail.
In contrast, they say, seven tribals convicted for the murder of Swami Lakshmananda, a religious leader, are still jail, even though Maoists had claimed they assassinated him.
CPM Leader Brinda Karat who accompanied them to Rashtrapati Bhavan said: "Out of 3,000 complaints, there were 423 convictions of people and all of them are out on bail. There is a complete lack of political will by the government in the state and nothing has been done on this."
Denying allegations, the Odisha government claimed it was Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who broke his party's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party after the violence in Kandhamal. Since then efforts have been made to rehabilitate the victims.
Biju Janata Dal MP Pinaki Mishra told NDTV: "There are 512 chargesheeted in 315 cases these are the numbers; so those trials are still on. If someone has got bail from court there is nothing the state government can do except opposing it."
"I'm not saying enough has been done, enough can never be done in such cases but there has been no case of violence after that and we have to mark that out," he added.
But for the victims, the wait for justice still continues in the hope that they would someday return to what was once home.