Conversion allegation rubbish: Christian delegation tells Commissioner

Mangalore, March 10: Dubbing the charges of robbery and attempt to forcible conversion made by an 18 year old boy and saffron outfits against a Christian man in the city as an “apparent lie and conspiracy”, Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee (DKDCC) urged the police to withdraw the 'false cases' and appoint a higher police officer to conduct a thorough investigation into the entire issue.

A delegation of DKDCC led by Ivan D'Souza along with a few representatives of Christian community and family members of the accused on Thursday handed over a memorandum to City Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh at his office, urging him to reveal the fact of the case to the society after an impartial investigation.

Nithin Poojary, an 18 year old boy on Wednesday filed a complaint against Jillu, who owns a catering service and a juice centre in the city at Urwa police station, accusing him of abducting him, keeping him as a hostage for a day, thrashing him and forcing him to convert into Christianity from Hinduism.

However, D'Souza said that all the statements given by the boy are false and he has acted according to the wish of Hindutva organisations.

“In fact the boy was an employee at Jillu's shop for past 20 days and the latter had scolded him for failing to carry out his duties. In revenge, the boy went on to lodge false complaint against his employer”, he said.

He said that baseless allegation of forced conversion has hurt the feelings of entire Christian community, which is repeatedly facing such false charges by some communal outfits.

Fr Onil D'Souza, a representative of Christian community, said that Jillu's is a respected family in the society and a number of employees, most of them Hindus, have been working for his catering service and juice centre for the past two decades. But no one complained against him. “A boy after working 20 days under him complaining against him of forcible conversion is nothing but a systematic conspiracy hatched by a group of people, who hate minorities,” he said.