NEW DELHI — Christians in eastern India suspect a church member’s Hindu family killed him last month for refusing to renounce his faith, sources said.
In West Bengal state’s Gobindapur village, Jhargram District, Hindu relatives of Madhab Gorai had threatened to burn him to death and feared his faith jeopardized his daughter’s impending marriage, the sources said.
Church members last saw the 46-year-old Gorai on Aug. 7, when his wife and adult son disrupted the start of a church service and threatened him, said Ashish Hansda, lay leader in charge of the Church of North India (CNI) congregation in the village.
Gorai’s wife was carrying a bottle of gasoline, and his son was carrying a wooden baton, he said. In a scuffle outside the church building, Gorai’s wife and son threatened to burn him alive, Hansda said.
Gorai’s wife and son pressured him to perform Hindu marriage rituals at his daughter’s impending wedding, where according to custom, the father of the bride would be required to worship sacred fire, said the pastor in charge of the church, the Rev. Subendu Soren.
“Gorai refused to involve himself in Hindu worship practices that contradicted his Christian faith,” Pastor Soren told Morning Star News.
Gorai’s family had argued that his refusal to perform the Hindu rituals would raise doubts about the family that could lead to the breaking off of his daughter’s engagement, said a close friend of Gorai who requested anonymity.
When his wife and son disrupted the start of the Aug. 7 church service, Hansda intervened, and Gorai’s wife and son took him home, Hansda said.
“Unpleasantness was created due to the scuffle, and so we did not have a church service that Sunday,” he said.
When he learned of the incident, Pastor Soren advised Hansda to file a police complaint about Gorai’s family carrying gasoline and scuffling with him outside the church building. He filed a complaint at the Ramgarh outpost, which falls under the Lalgarh police station.
An officer at the Ramgarh outpost said he informed the Saranga Thana police station about the incident and sent a volunteer to check on the church the next Sunday, Aug. 14.
“Madhab Gorai’s house does not fall under my jurisdiction, so I did not take any action once they had gone home,” the officer told Morning Star News.
The in-charge at the Saranga Thana police station told Morning Star News that he was on leave during that period and had no knowledge of a death in the area.
Pastor Soren said no formal complaint was registered at the Saranga Thana police station.
“No formal complaint was registered in the police station by any of Madhab’s relatives, though people in the village knew the tension in their family about Madhab’s faith and had mixed feelings about the sudden death,” Pastor Soren told Morning Star News.
This story was originally published in christianpost.com . Read the full story here