MP: Police issue notices to church office-bearers seeking religious conversion details, withdraw after objection

PTI, Jul 16, 2023, 1:36 PM IST

Police served notices to office-bearers of 40 churches in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore city seeking details of religious conversion activities, but withdrew them after opposition by the Christian community and said they were issued “by mistake”.

The community members found “objectionable” the notices issued last week by different police stations in Indore to the office-bearers of around 40 churches and religious organisations, an office-bearer of one such outfit said.

When asked about it, Indore Police Commissioner Makrand Deuskar told reporters on Saturday that the notices which reached the people were actually sent to the station house officers (SHOs) of all police stations in Indore.

The SHOs sent them to members of the Christian community “by mistake”, he said.

Hence, the notices have been withdrawn after opposition by the community members, the official said.

Suresh Kalton of the United Christian Forum on Sunday told PTI that there were “objectionable” questions in the notices on involvement in religious conversion activities.

“There is a question in the notice asking the person to declare whether he or his organisation is involved in religious conversion. This act of the police is a violation of our constitutional rights,” he claimed.

“None of us is involved in such activities and we will go to the High Court against these notices,” Kalton said.

There are 60,000 Christians in Indore and a large number of them are associated with social welfare activities pertaining to health and education, he said.