No Conversion Took Place: Missionaries Of Charity Denies Charge Of 'Luring Girls Towards Christianity'

The NCPCR chairman requested a complaint be made against the residence, according to Assistant Commissioner of Police SB Kumpawat, after which a committee was created to probe the incident.

New Delhi: Gujarat police has registered an FIR against the Missionaries of Charity, an organisation founded by Mother Teresa, for allegedly luring young girls into Christianity at a shelter home run by it in Vadodara. The organisation has rejected the charge.

ACP SB Kumpawat said the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairman had visited the children's home in August this year and found some anomalies.

"The NCPCR chairman then wrote a letter to DC asking to file a complaint against the institute. So, a committee was formed to investigate the case. The committee visited there on December 10 and submitted the report. Based on that a case has been registered," ANI quoted ACP SB Kumpawat as saying.

Sister Rose Teresa, a nun from the institute, refuted the allegations of conversion and said children only follow the prayers they read. "There is nothing like that. We do prayers and they (Children) follow us. No conversion has taken place," ANI quoted Sister Rose Teresa as saying.

IPC Section 295 A & 298 Filed Against The Organisation

According to an Indian Express report, the organisation has been booked under IPC sections for deliberate and malicious acts to outrage feelings of any class by insulting its religious beliefs (295 A), deliberately uttering words to wound the religious feelings of a person (298) as well as the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003, which provides for prohibition of forcible conversion.

The FIR lodged at Makarpura police station is based on a complaint from District Social Defence Officer Mayank Trivedi. As per the FIR, Trivedi found that girls at the home were being "forced" to read Christian religious texts and participate in prayers of Christian faith, with the intention of "steering them into Christianity".

As per the Indian Express report, the FIR states, "Between February 10, 2021, and December 9, 2021, the institution has been involved in activities to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus intentionally and with bitterness…The girls inside the Home for Girls are being lured to adopt Christianity by making them wear the cross around their neck and also placing the Bible on the table of the storeroom used by the girls, in order to compel them to read the Bible…It is an attempted crime to force religious conversion upon the girls."