E-Paper
FIR registered against 9 persons for alleged religious conversion in UP’s Meerut
A complaint alleged that the accused started converting people, encouraged them to visit church and told them to remove pictures of Hindu Gods from their houses during Diwali
A case has been registered against nine persons, including four women, in Brahmpuri police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on Friday night on a complaint of felicitating conversion of a few people in Mangatpura locality, police said.
Circle officer (CO) of Brahmpuri area, Brajesh Singh said that prima face allegations made against a group of local residents appears true but it requires more investigation to come to a conclusion.
He said that a group of local residents reported the matter to Brahmpuri police on Friday accusing a rival group of locals of involving in activities of conversion. Singh said that a case has been registered against nine persons and an investigation is underway to verify the charges of conversion.
Senior officials also visited the locality on Saturday and enquired about the matter.
Singh said that a few families of a tribal community migrated from Barabanki and settled in government and private land of Mangatpura 20 to 25 years ago. They are mainly involved in rag picking to earn their livelihood. Their population increased over the period of time and the value of the abandoned land also escalated after colonies came up around it. He added that some people also want to get the land vacated.
It is alleged that people here came on the brink of starvation during the period of Covid lockdown and one Mahesh Paschar, who is said to be a Christian, came forward to help and provided them food and other help. The complaint said that in return of help they started converting people and encouraged them to visit church. They allegedly told them to remove pictures of Hindu God and Goddesses from their houses during Diwali.
The matter was reported to a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Deepak Sharma, through a social activist, Sachin, and they staged a demonstration at Brahmpuri police station. Leaders and activists of Bajrangdal and other Hindu organisations also joined them and demanded to register a case against those who were allegedly facilitating conversion.
The circle officer said that a cemented platform was found in the locality which was mentioned as church, but locals claimed that it was built to provide a place for children to study and it was like a school. But, they could not present any teacher or other things required to run a school.
Meanwhile, additional force has been deployed in the locality in order to maintain peace and law and order. Senior officials are keeping a close watch on the situation.
