New Delhi: An FIR was registered against the director of a children's home run by the Missionaries of Charity for allegedly trying to forcibly convert the girls into Christianity, reported PTI.
The FIR was registered on Sunday based on a complaint by the in-charge of the Vadodara district social security office Mayank Trivedi which stated that attempts were being made to convert Hindu girls staying there to Christianity, a Makarpura police station official told PTI.
The girls were made to wear a cross and give them the Bible for recitation, police said on Monday. The FIR stated that the management kept a Bible on the table of a storeroom for girls to recite from in an attempt at religious conversion, the official said.
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The FIR invokes Sections 3 and 4 of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act related to converting, or attempting to convert a person from one religion to another through force, allurement, or fraudulent means, as well as sections 295 (A) and 298 of the Indian Penal Code related to hurting religious feelings, the official told PTI.
The alleged incidents took place between February 10 and December 9 this year, he said, adding that a further probe is underway.
According to a TOI report, the chairman of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairman visited the children’s home in August this year.
“He found some anomalies at the institute and wrote a letter to the district collector asking to file a complaint against the institute. So, a committee was formed to investigate the case and it gave a report to the collector. So, I have filed a complaint with the police,” TOI quoted Mayank Trivedi as saying.
However, when Sister Rose Terrassa who works at the institute has rejected all the allegations of the religious conversions at the children’s home and said that they only educate the children. The home looks after orphan kids and those who were rescued from child labour.
Police said that the girls were married according to Christian rituals and all of them were asked to read the Bible.
City police commissioner Shamsher Singh said, “There are prima facie three things in the social security officer’s complaint. A girl was converted to Christian religion without the permission of the district collector which is mandatory and some of the girls in the institute were given Bible and crosses to wear. We will now investigate the complaint.”