Bhopal: Twelve persons, including a blind couple and their three-year-old son, were sent to jail in central India for allegedly violating a law that forbid religious conversion through allurements and force.
Seven of the arrested, including the blind couple, were released from jail on Sunday in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.
The boy is not an accused in the case.
According to Pastor Suresh Mandlo, the 12 were arrested on January14 and sent to jail the next day. They were invited by Shankar Singh, a resident of Dahar village to join a meal on the occasion of Makar Sankranti festival.
A group of men surrounded the house until police came and took the 12 away. None of the arrested and Singh are Christians.
Questioning the police action, Singh told mattersindia.com, “My guests were arrested and sent to jail for alleged conversion activity in my house even without any complaint from me.”
Father Dr Anand Muttungal, coordinator of the ecumenical Rashtriya Isai Mahasangh (national Christian grand assembly) termed as “quite disturbing to see police arrest and jail poor people merely on a false complaint of conversion without going into a preliminary investigation.”
The former spokesperson and public relation officer of the Catholic Church in Madhya Pradesh told mattersindia.com that “police never took action against those attacking Christians in some cases even after providing digital evidences proving their guilt.”
The priest wants the police to explain whom the 12 had converted to Christianity.
Madhya Pradesh is one of the states where Christians face continued violent attacks from the right wing Hindu groups who are opposed to its social services which according to them is a façade to convert the poor into Christianity.