Confusion and contradiction prevailed in the reported incident of ‘conversion’ of five people to Christianity in a village in Bhagalpur district of Bihar as all of them have given a written statement to the police that “they have not been converted to any religion and still are Hindus”.
“All the five who were reported to have converted to Christianity four days ago have given us in writing that they are still Hindus and have not converted to any other religion”, Neeraj Kumar Singh, senior police official of Kahalgaon told The Hindu . Mr. Singh had visited the village after the issue was raked-up in local media and said he found no sign of any conversion there.
All the five people Basudeo Mandal, Radhe Mandal, Pamo Devi, Sunita Devi and Lalita Devi are from Barohiya village under Buddhuchak police station of Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur. The reported conversion happened on the night of December 15 and all of them are from poor agricultural labourers and live in thatched houses, said the police official.
Asked how did the issue raked up, Mr. Singh said that a villager, who was ailing for some time was cured after praying to Jesus Christ.
“After my recovery the word somehow spread in the village that I along with some others have converted to Christianity which is absolutely a false and fake claim”, the villager Basudeo Mandal has given in writing to the police”, said the police officer.
Since then, the villagers themselves are amazed how all of sudden they have come into focus and why so many people have started visiting them, Vivek Kumar, Senior Superintendent of police of Bhagalpur told The Hindu while himself expressing wonder how could such news of conversion got spread when the persons themselves are denying the report.
The district magistrate Birendra Prasad Yadav, meanwhile, has ordered a probe into the “reported conversion”.
Significantly, members of Hindu outfits too reportedly visited the village and immediately claimed that all those who were converted have returned to Hinduism.
“They are the poor people and it was because of their poverty they might have been encouraged to embrace other religion but now they have returned to Hinduism”, a local RSS member was quoted in a local newspaper.
But, no purification ceremony or ghar wapsi event was conducted, police said.
“There was no sign of any such ceremony or event which took place in the village and even there is no tension there, only the inquisitive locals and media people are occasionally visiting them”, Neeraj Kumar Singh, ASP, Kahalgaon told The Hindu .
