A video circulating on social media – of a man and woman allegedly forced to convert to Christianity in Madhya Pradesh – has been flagged by National Commission of Women chairperson Rekha Sharma, who has asked local police to take action and detain the guilty.
Sharma shared the video on Twitter and said, “Not acceptable at all.” She said the NCW had demanded action against the accused and his gang, if the allegations are proven true.
In the video – which Hindustan Times cannot independently verify – the woman is speaking to reporters and describing how her husband and she were ‘converted’ to Christianity.
“We were dipped in a water tankтАж four to five guys had gathered (and) they were reciting something and asked to bathe in the water,” she said, describing her ‘conversion’.
She claimed to have been paid тВ╣1.20 lakh by the ‘Bishop Ajai Lall gang’ and said her husband and she had been threatened after they stopped going to church.
тАЬThey used to threaten usтАж even now, when they saw us, they said, ‘hum aapko dekh lenge’. They paid us for the conversionтАж today they’re asking for four times the amountтАжтАЭ
The alleged incident took place in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district.
The woman said she had noted gang members’ names in her diary so she could return the money; she said тВ╣90,000 had been returned but now they wanted more.
The woman also said she had informed the police but they did not act on her complaint.
This is not the first time allegations of religious conversion have emerged from Madhya Pradesh. On Monday, 10 members of a Christian organisation were booked on charges of converting children; the complaint was filed by the national child rights body.
According to a report by news agency PTI, a preliminary investigation revealed the manager of a state-aided care centre in Raisen had ‘changed’ the religion of at least three children.
Their names were also changed and Priyank Kanoongo, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), called the incident a ‘serious matter’ and urged district officials to register a case against Haseen Parvez, the manager.
