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Carol singers and priests detained in MP: Bajrang Dal claims forced conversation, Catholic organisations fume

A Catholic priest and 40 others were detained for alleged forced conversion, who also filed a complaint that their vehicles were set ablaze by Bajrang Dal workers, reported ANI.

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Dharmendra Dohar who claims he was allegedly asked to convert
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A Catholic priest and 40 others were detained in Satna, Madhya Pradesh for alleged forced conversion, who also filed a complaint that their vehicles were set ablaze by Bajrang Dal workers, reports ANI.

One local alleged that the Catholic priest had asked them to take holy dips in the pond and ‘embrace Christianity’.

Meanwhile, TOI reported that 32 Christmas ‘carol singers’ were detained by police in Satna. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), said the group comprised seminarians and two priests form St Ephrem’s Theological College in Satna, and were detained while conducting routine carol singing program for Christmas.

The TOI report states that when eight other priests, went to the police station to enquire, they too were held and one of their cars was set on fire outside the station.

The police said detention followed claims by one Dharmendra Dohar who alleged he was being forced to ‘embrace Christianity’.

Sub-inspector Mohinee Sharma of Civil Lines police station said a case has been registered against unidentified people for burning the vehicle, but denied claim about members of the Catholic community been assaulted during the incident. Nobody has been arrested yet, she added.

"They (members of the Catholic group) may have been manhandled outside the police station premises. If they come to us with a complaint that they were beaten up, we will surely book the accused," the police officer said.
 

Father M. Rony, social work director of Satna diocese, told PTI that some young men stormed the venue of a pre- Christmas function at Bhoomkar village, 15 km from the district headquarters, around 9 last night and created a ruckus, alleging that religious conversion was going on there.

The function was organised by Syro-Malabar Church of Northern India for children. After police got information, they came to the spot and took 32 Catholic brothers (trainee priests) and two priests to the Civil Lines police station, Fr Rony said.

"When they reached the police station, they were beaten up by Bajrang Dal activists on the station campus. Hearing the news, four other priests rushed to the police station, but they were also thrashed and their car was set on fire," he claimed, adding four more priests went to the police station and were assaulted too.

Police let off members of the Catholic group around 3:30 am. They agreed to visit the police station today morning, Rony said. "As promised they returned in the morning, and right now (around 3:30 pm) they (priests and others) are at the police station," he said.

Rony said the diocese was running a seminary at Barakala village in Satna district for the last 20 years and not a single person there had converted to Christianity. "We are being persecuted," he said.

Sub-inspector Sharma said a Catholic priest and five others were booked today for allegedly converting a Hindu man to Christianity using force and allurement at Bhoomkar village.

"We have booked (priest) M George and five others on the complaint of Dharmendra Dohar, a local youth who claimed he was illegally converted on December 10," Sharma said.
Rony said he was not aware of who Dohar was.
 

Satna superintendent of police Rajesh Hingankar could not be reached for comments despite repeated calls. 

Several Christian organisations have registered their protest. Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX, Secretary Generation, CBCI said: “Unfortunately, in Madhya Pradesh there have been other signs of harassment of the Catholic Church in the last few months about which we have not raised a hue and cry. What is even more shocking is that eight priests who later went to enquire about the detained priests and seminarians were also taken into custody. Charge of conversion on which the priests and seminarians are detained is frivolous and laughable.”

Meanwhile, state convenor of Bajrang Dal Rajendra Tiwari said they had received information that some people from Kerala had come to convert people and they had informed the police.

With inputs from PTI

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