Father Mundu tasked with upkeep of British-era cemetery in Ambala

The British Deputy High Commission, Chandigarh, had last month in an official order given the maintenance rights to Fathers Patras Mundu and C Anthony with office at Holy Redeemer Church

Almost two months after the Hindustan Times reported on the battle for possession of the British-era European Christian Cemetery in Ambala Cantonment between two parties, the administration finally handed over the keys to father Patras Mundu and father C Anthony on Tuesday.

Father Mundu tasked with upkeep of British-era cemetery in Ambala

The British Deputy High Commission, Chandigarh, had last month in an official order given the maintenance and upkeep rights of the cemetery to Mundu and Anthony with its office at Holy Redeemer Church.

The cemetery was handed over on the orders of the sub-divisional magistrate of Ambala Cantonment, Mamta Sharma, after which a duty magistrate was appointed, who in the presence of Ambala police broke the old locks whose keys were with bishop Shaukatt Masih Bhatti of Alexandra Road. The gates were locked again using new chains with the keys with Mundu, who is the secretary and treasurer of the committee.

‘We served two notices to bishop’

Sharma said, “We served two notices to the other party (bishop Bhatti) to hand over the keys, but they didn’t respond. They even said that they would hand over the keys, but later they went untraceable. Today, we forcefully took the cemetery under our custody and handed it over to the first party (Mundu) as per the decision of the British High Commission.”

After the decision, Mundu said, “We will start the maintenance and repair work of the boundary wall from tomorrow. We will take up the cleaning work and repairing of the graves in a phased manner.”

Anthony said, “For the last couple of years, he (bishop Bhatti) started claiming that he is the owner of the cemetery. On the pretext of cleaning the burial ground, he took the keys and never returned. Some graves had been damaged by a demolition machine while he was cleaning the land to sell it.”

Cemetery lay in dilapidated condition

Because of the dispute, the cemetery could not be cleaned and was in a state of neglect, and the place was covered with long wild grass, some spots inundated by sewer water, gamblers and drug addicts, with its historical importance forgotten.

The HT had reported thrice on the sorry state of affairs of over 2 lakh graves spread across 20.54 acres of land, including those of around 66 World War I (1914-1918) soldiers, 20 Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) prisoners who fought in South Africa and those of Britons dating back to pre-independence.

Teams from Commonwealth War Graves (CWGC), British High Commission, and Haryana Archaeology department had visited the site several times. The place is also a state-protected site where illegal encroachments have come up along the boundary wall that were inspected by an official from the archaeology department in November.

Former Union tourism minister and Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala KJ Alphons had in November written to Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and principal secretary to the state government (archaeology and museums department) Ashok Khemka highlighting the “obstruction” created by Bhatti.