Bhopal/Indore, Dec 6: Eighteen years after Samundar Singh brutally stabbed a Catholic nun in Madhya Pradesh and flung her on the roadside to bleed to death, the former convict has been invited to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican.
The nun, Sister Rani Maria, was stabbed 54 times inside a packed Indore-bound bus passing through Udainagar village in Dewas in February 1995. The nun died by the roadside.
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia from the Vatican invited Singh on behalf of the Pope through Swami Sadanand, a Catholic priest based at Chhindwara district.
The Pope was moved after watching a documentary film - The Heart of a Murderer - by award-winning Australian-Italian director Catherine McGilvray. This film depicts the ghastly crime and the power of forgiveness.
The slain nun's younger sister Selmy and Swami Sadanand have also been invited to attend the special screening of the documentary in Rome in the first week of March. Pope Francis will attend the function.
The message was conveyed to the Chhindwara-based priest Swami Sadanand through email, said church sources.
However, neither Sadanand nor Samundar Singh has a passport to travel to Rome. "I have not received any official confirmation and don't have a passport. I have lost all necessary documents to get one," Samundar Singh said.
Pope also wants to meet Sadanand as he was instrumental in 'changing the heart' of Singh, who spent 11 years and 6 months in jail after murdering Sister Maria.
In 1995, Samundar Singh acted at the behest of some landlords who opposed the nun's work among poor farm labourers. The nun had boarded the bus from Udainagar in Dewas and was on her way to Kerala. Singh, who was 22 years old at that time, was arrested and sentenced to death. His sentence was
later commuted to life term. Singh was freed in 2006 after serving the jail term and now earns his livelihood through farming at his village, 50 km from district headquarters.
Family members of the slain nun had forgiven him and accepted him a member of their family. Her younger sister Selmy - who is also a Catholic nun - ties a rakhi every year since he was in jail.
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