Madhya Pradesh police have arrested 13 people, including a blind
couple, for allegedly trying to convert a few residents of Dehar village
in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district to Christianity.
Officers from the Kukshi station said they had also launched a search
for four more persons in connection with the alleged conversion attempt
in the house of a local resident, Shankar Singh, on January 14.
Twelve of those arrested last week — the 13th arrest was recorded
yesterday — are linked to a Pentecostal church in Badwani and claimed
that they had not converted but only followed the teachings of Jesus,
said police.
All the arrested were booked under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of
Religion Act and Section 153 (A) of the IPC, said police. Among those
were Balu Keshu Saste, a blind man in his 40s, and his wife Bhuri, said
police, adding that Saste had earlier been detained for a similar
offence in 2010; the trial is on at a court in Kukshi.
“They trick local residents by offering inducements or using force. We had received information that the conversion was on,’’ U C Tiwari, in-charge of Kukshi station, told The Indian Express. Shankar Singh, however, accused the police of acting at the behest of right-wing activists from Nisarpura village, who he alleged led the police to his house when he was serving the visitors lunch. “They stormed my house and misbehaved with women,’’ alleged Singh.
Badwani-based Anar Singh, who identified himself as an assistant to a pastor, said the activists also raised slogans and damaged two-wheelers before police completed the arrests.
Click here for source
