Railway police detain 5 women in MP on suspicion of religious conversion

Railway police in Stana cut short the journey of five women from Jharkhand to Bhopal and detained them on suspicion that four of them were being taken for religious conversion. The police decided to release them later in the evening.

Bhopal: The government railway police (GRP) on Tuesday briefly detained five women including a nun and a minor girl at Satna railway station on suspicion that they were being taken from Jharkhand to Bhopal for religious conversion before deciding to release them.

File photograph of a train. Five women travelling in a train from Jharkhand to Bhopal were detained by railway police in Satna on Tuesday on suspicion of a religious conversion racket.(HT PHOTO)

The GRP decided to release the five detainees later in the night after the statements of the five detained women were recorded before the SDM Satna.

SR Bagri, GRP station house officer Satna told HT on phone that in their statements three adult women told SDM that they were Christians and were going to Bhopal for studying without anybody forcing them.

“In case of the minor girl, we called her parents in Jharkhand and they told us that they had sent her for the studies. So now we have decided to release them. They will be released anytime now,” he said.

Bagri said earlier they had planned to send a team to Jharkhand, but after statements were recorded and they spoke to the parents, it was decided there was no need to send a team to Jharkhand.

Earlier in the day, Bagri told HT that Bajrang Dal activists gave them the input that five women including a nun were travelling to Bhopal in the Shipra Express for alleged conversion of the four women.

“Following the input, we searched the train and detained five women, including a minor and a nun. When we questioned the women, they said they were going to Bhopal for studies. When we questioned the nun, she said the women were being taken to Bhopal for English coaching,” he said.

Earlier on May 21, 60 tribal children from Jhabua district, who were being taken to Nagpur, were detained at Ratlam railway station after right wing activists raised a red flag about their possible “religious conversion”. The Railway protection force (RPF) also detained nine people accompanying the children, who said that the kids were being taken to Nagpur for a cultural function and picnic as part of a summer camp with due permission of their parents. They were released later after their parents were called.

On May 22, local police stopped 11 tribal children from Alirajpur district were stopped near Indore railway. Two of their escorts were arrested and two cases under the MP Freedom of Religion Act and Section 363 of IPC (punishment for kidnapping) were lodged against them.

(with inputs from Amit Singh Senger from Satna)