Petitioners have alleged in the Supreme Court that “attacks” on Christians and registration of cases against members of the religious minority “coincide” with the coming of anti-conversion laws in several States.
Their petitions have alleged that attacks against Christians saw an “exponential rise” post 2022. They had listed alleged incidents of violence against Christians in Bihar, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Also Read: Statistics on attacks on Christian community wrong: Centre to Supreme Court
A recent affidavit filed by the Centre said the petitions were “exaggerated”. It said the “attacks”, as claimed by the petitioners, were actually “internal fights between neighbours of which one of them would be a Christian”.
Rejoinder to affidavit
But the petitioners, represented by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, in their rejoinder to the government affidavit, said the affidavit of the Centre “discloses” the “political identity” of the people, whose complaints against the Christian community members, are registered by the police as FIRs.
“In over 90% of the incidents, a prayer meeting would be taking place in a private residence or a church premises. As if on cue, a large group of persons from a well-known communal organisation force entry into the premises, disrupt the prayer meeting, assault the congregation, including women, destroy property, drag the pastor and others to the police station, register FIRs against the victim community and in many cases put the pastor in jail. In many instances the assailants are accompanied by the local police and this gives the assailants’ confidence that they can resort to violence,” the rejoinder alleged.
The petitioners said the “assaults were not spontaneous and unconnected but rather part of the overall well-planned strategy”.
They claimed that there was not a single instance of an assailant being booked by the police. “In a few cases these assailants were picked up by the police and released,” their rejoinder said.
