[world-vedic] Alleged assault for refusing to convert

[Guest guest]

>The Times of India

>Friday 4 February 2000

>Alleged assault on boys for refusing to convert

>The Times of India News Service

>

>BHOPAL: Parents of nine Dalit and OBC school-going children aged

>between seven and 10 have registered a case with the police in Rajgarh

>against a priest, Father Abraham, on the charge of repeatedly

>assaulting their wards and denying them meals following their refusal

>to convert to the Christian faith. The priest has been absconding

>since Monday after the complaint was lodged with the Rajgarh police

>station. Also on the run with the priest is 10-year-old Vikram (a

>resident of Jhabua) who had reportedly acquiesced to the conversion.

>Seven of the children were brought to Bhopal by a former BJP MLA from

>Rajgarh and produced before journalists on Thursday. The news has

>caused a furore in local political circles since Rajgarh happens to be

>the home district of the chief minister. One of the children,

>nine-year-old Banne Singh told The Times of India News Service that he

>and his friends lived in a convent run by a local church at Rajgarh

>but studied in a neighbouring government school. Displaying mostly dry

>wounds around his knuckles and waist, he alleged, ``Father ne humko

>ravivar ko bet ki chadi se maara (Father beat us with a cane on

>Sunday)'' upon which he complained to ``Papa and Mummy''. His friend

>Kamal, standing next, alleged that the priest used to invariably

>summon him inside the church when nobody was around and hand out

>threats and slaps for refusing to accept Jesus Christ (not Hanuman) as

>their Lord and saviour. Kamal said he was beaten up on Saturday.

>Kamal's father Jagannath Singh, a farm hand at a nearby village,

>alleged that it was only after they narrated the woes of their wards

>to the government school authorities that the matter was brought to

>the notice of the SP of Rajgarh. The SP, in turn, ordered on Tuesday

>that the children be immediately shifted to a sarkari (government)

>boarding house. Jagannath alleged that photos of Hindu Gods in the

>possession of his son were torn to pieces by the priest. Tracing the

>history of his interaction with the local church authorities,

>Jagannath Singh said he first came in touch with the priest when he

>began doing odd jobs for Abraham's predecessor some two years ago.

>When the latter came to know that Kamal was studying at a government

>school, he extended him the facility of letting the son stay at the

>convent-run boarding (which now has 29 children). He alleged that the

>regular beating up of children only began after Abraham came on the

>scene some 10-12 months ago. ``He used to tell the children that the

>beatings would stop and that they would get lovely things to eat and

>wear if they began loving Jesus instead of Hanuman,'' he alleged.

>Former BJP MLA Raghunandan Sharma, who escorted the children and their

>fathers to Bhopal, said it was strange that though the children had

>been permitted to stay at the convent, none was admitted to the

>church-run school which was a stone's throw away from the boarding

>house. He alleged that this was largely because the church did not

>wish to spoil the ``atmosphere'' of the school by inducting children

>belonging to the poor families.

 

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