Bhopal (UCAN): India’s Supreme Court dismissed a religious conversion case registered against Father George Mangalapilly, Madhya Pradesh state three years ago.
“Apart from the testimony of the witness, there is nothing else on record which could potentially be relied upon against the appellant,” the court said in its order discharging the priest from the case.
Father Mangalapilly, a professor at St. Ephrem’s Theological College in the Diocese of Satna, was charged with converting Dharmendar Dohar, a Hindu, to Christianity by allegedly offering him a bribe of 5,000 rupees [around $525] and other benefits in December 2017. Together with 32 seminarians and another priest, he was taken into police custody on 14 December 2017 as they were on their way to sing Christmas carols while visiting Christian homes, a tradition they have followed for decades.
The Hindu activists, mostly members of the Bajarang Dal, also blocked officers of the police station and demanded action against the priests and all the seminarians for attempting to convert Hindus. They also alleged there were ulterior motives to carol singing.
The police charged Father Mangalapilly and let off the others. The priest was given bail the following day, but the case against him continued even after Dohar himself denied the charge that he was not converted to Christianity.
The case was based on a witness statement claiming that Dohar was bribed and to convert Christianity, an allegation Dohar himself denied in court. However, a lower court refused to dismiss the charges.
Father Mangalapilly asked the Madhya Pradesh High Court to dismiss the case in August 2020, but was turned down forcing him to approach the Supreme Court which finally set aside the high court order and discharged the priest from the case.
Father Mangalapilly said on September 15 that “it was really a harrowing experience” for him “to fight a false case from the trial court to the top court.”
He added, “I was sure justice would be done to me as the charges were fabricated and I was falsely implicated in it.”
Christians in Madhya Pradesh accuse right-wing Hindu groups, opposed to their charitable work among the poor, of painting a negative picture of Christianity and Christians.
They falsely accuse Christian missionaries of converting lower-caste Hindus and other gullible indigenous people and claim the charitable work is a facade for religious conversion.
Sister Bhagya of the Sisters of Destitute, principal of Sacred Heart Convent High School in Khajuraho of Chhatarpur district, also in Satna, was charged with religious conversion in February this year [Sunday Examiner, March 7]. She was removed from the school, despite the fact that school was closed following the Covid-19 lockdown. She is out on bail and is facing trial. If convicted, Sister Bhagya faces up to 10 years in jail.
Police filed charges against the nun under a stringent anti-conversion law enacted in January. The law makes it a criminal offense to use force, allurement or fraudulent means to convert a person from one religion to another.
Extremist Hindu activists have forced their way into Christian prayer services and disrupted them on the excuse that religious conversions were taking place.
Police often register cases against Christians based on false allegations.
