It took Madhya Pradesh police three days to file an FIR against purported Hindutva groups who had allegedly attacked two Catholic priests in Jabalpur on Monday. No arrests have been made in the case so far.
Around 50 Christian pilgrims from the neighbouring Mandla district reached Jabalpur on Monday for a day-long church visit. Members from Hindutva groups allegedly stopped the bus the pilgrims were travelling in and accused them of religious conversion. They allegedly took the pilgrims to Ranjhi police station where they were detained for six hours. However, when the Vicar General of Jabalpur Diocese, Father Davis George, and procurator of diocese Father George Thomas, reached the police station to help the pilgrims, they were allegedly assaulted by Hindutva groups. In a video of the incident, slogans of Jai Shri Ram can also be heard.
While no arrests have been made in the case, police only registered an FIR on April 3, after the issue was raised in Parliament by two members of Parliament from Kerala – Kodikunnil Suresh and Deen Kuriakose.
When Newslaundry questioned the Jabalpur Ranjhi area city superintendent of police Satish Sahu why the police couldn’t stop the assault, register the FIR sooner and arrest the attackers, he replied, “We did our best to intervene. We have filed the FIR and have started the procedure of identification. Soon we are going to arrest those who were involved in the incident.”
Father George told Newslaundry that the police were present during the alleged attack but he didn’t know to what extent their intervention was effective.
“It (police intervention) should have been more effective. Otherwise how could they have assaulted us,” said Father George.
This story was originally published in newslaundry.com. Read the full story here.