Indian police arrested 14 Christians including a teenage boy for allegedly attempting to convert Hindus at a popular pilgrimage town in the western state of Maharashtra.
“We arrested all the 14 but they were released on bail. Our team is investigating the case,” Senior Police Inspector Sunil Godse of Alandi Police Station in Pune district told UCA News on Jan. 18.
Those arrested included 10 men, three women and a 17-year-old boy.
They were charged with causing religious hatred and hurting Hindu sentiments by allegedly offering financial help to poor Hindus in an attempt to convert them to Christianity.
Godse said this was the second incident of its kind reported from rural areas in the vicinity of Alandi, a pilgrimage town known as the resting place of 13th-century saint-poet Dnyaneshwar who interpreted the sacred Hindu texts of Bhagwad Gita.
On Jan 15, two of the male suspects, Pradip Waghmare and Prashant Waghmare, “reached out to me and asked if I knew anything about Christianity and told me to read the Bible and convert to Christianity for a better life,” complainant Prasad Salunkhe, a Hindu from Markal village, told the police.
His family was being harassed to convert to Christianity. The group also approached other villagers and tried to lure them by offering money for running their small business, Salunkhe said in his complaint registered at the police station on the same day.
He further claimed that the Christians said worshipping Hindu gods and reading the Hindu scriptures were of no use.
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