Bhopal: Acting on a complaint alleging that minor children were being forced to eat beef at an ashram, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Friday issued a notice to the Superintendent Police of Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district directing him to investigate the matter and submit a report within 48 hours.
The complaint, received by the NCPCR against St. Francis Sevadham located in Shyampura area under the state’s Sagar district, also alleged that minor children were being forced to read the Bible, news agency IANS reported.
This came as two siblings residing in St. Francis Sevadham recently lodged a complaint in the district’s Cantt Police Station with their parents’ help.
Charging that “they were forced to eat cow meat and read the Bible”, the children have reportedly alleged that the ashram authorities’ harassed them if they refused to do so.
Deshraj Raikvar, the father of the children, had recently written to Sagar’s Child Welfare Committee stating that a woman, who introduced herself as a social worker, took his children to the sevadham ashram.
“I went to meet my children many times, but they did not allow me to meet them. Somehow, once I got a chance to meet children. My children said they did not want to stay at the ashram because they are being forced to eat cow meat,” Raikvar wrote in his letter, according to the IANS report.
“They were beaten up for refusing to eat the meat and reading the Bible,” he added.