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A Christian community group has filed a complaint at a Thane police station in connection with the allegations of cow slaughter in largely Christian villages.
The complaint filed at Vartaknagar Police Station by the Association of Concerned Christians has complained against hate speech and threats against the Christian community in Chhattisgarh.
The complaint has demanded the filing of an FIR against a resident of Chhattisgarh who is accused of making hateful and inflammatory statements against the Christian community, including threats to forcibly drag women out of their homes and torture them. The threats were made in a letter and a video circulated in the area. The group has demanded preventive legal action to curb hate speech so that social harmony is maintained.
His statements hurt the religious sentiments of the Christian community and violate the principles of secularism as well as the right to religious freedom of the Indian Constitution. These kinds of statements are likely to disturb the peace in the society and lead to riots, says the complaint by Ignatius Quadras, president and Melvin Fernandez, secretary of AOCC.
The complaint says that the statements hurt the religious sentiments of the Christian community and violate the principles of secularism as well as the right to religious freedom of the Indian Constitution. “These kinds of statements are likely to disturb the peace in the society and lead to riots,” said Fernandez.
Cow slaughter is banned in Chhattisgarh. However, right wing groups have alleged that cows are being slaughtered for meat in villages that are largely Christian. There have also been disputes in the state’s tribal areas over burials of Christian in tribal burial grounds. In January, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court gave a split verdict on a plea by the son of a deceased Christian pastor from Chhattisgarh seeking to bury the man’s body in his native village.
The body was lying in the morgue after he was denied permission to bury it in the village graveyard because of opposition from residents. While one judge pulled up the village authorities, the other judge said the burial should be conducted at a burial ground marked for Christians.
This story was originally published in freepressjournal.in.