New Delhi: Members of a right-wing organisation beat up a Dalit family in Belagavi district on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border after accusing them of converting neighbours to Christianity, news reports said.
Five of them have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 326 (causing grievous hurt by dangerous means, 354 (outraging the modesty of women) and 392 (robbery) and sections of SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) Act. However, the police is yet to make any arrests.
The alleged attack took place on December 29, 2021.
According to the Indian Express, Akshay Kumar Karaganvi, a pastor, had organised annual prayers at his residence, when seven members of a right-wing outfit allegedly entered his house and interrupted the prayers.
They allegedly thrashed the family members, accusing them of organising Bible prayers with the intention of converting the neighbours and villagers to Christianity by allurement, force and fraud, The Hindu reported.
The report added that the accused allegedly called the women of the Karaganavi family and their cousins, the Vyapari family, ‘professional sex workers’ and the men as children of ‘professional sex workers’.
They also beat up Akshay and his nephew Sudhakar Vyapari, and attacked the women.
Kavita, Kumar’s wife, filed a complaint in which she said that one of the accused (Parasappa) took hot sambar from the stove and and threw it at Bharati Vyapari. He also hit her knee with the sambar vessel. She suffered burn injuries and is undergoing treatment in Mudalagi.
The other accused are Shivanand Gotur, Ramesh Dandapur, Parasappa Babu, Fakirappa Bagewadi and Krishna Kanitkar from Tukkanatti village, Chetan Gadadi from Kankanawadi, and Mahantesh Hattaraki from Hattaraki, The Hindu report said.
Ramesh, one of the accused, snatched a gold chain belonging to Sudhakar, it added.
“They abused our caste as a group of toilet cleaners and chappal makers, and that we were betraying the Hindu faith that were born into,” the police officer told The Hindu, citing what Akshay Karaganavi told the investigators.
Also read: ‘We Haven’t Eaten for Days’: Family of Dalit Man Lynched ‘By Jat Mob’ in Hisar
Similar incidents
Similar incidents have been reported in parts of Karnataka in the past.
On December 28, a group of Hindutva vigilantes barged into a house in Tumakuru where women from the Dalit community were celebrating a Christmas event, the News Minute reported. Journalist Prajwal Bhat shared a video of the incident on Twitter. The video shows the women refusing to be cowed down by the bullying and questioning the legitimacy of the men who barged into their house.
Another incident reported by The Quint said that on November 7, 25 local vigilantes allegedly disrupted the prayer gathering organised by a Dalit Christian preacher in Aladakatti of Haveri, and manhandled him.
Such attacks have increased in the state after chief minister Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government passed the “anti-conversion” Bill in December 2021, following Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, which have enacted similar laws with clear communal undertones.
Several incidents of attacks on Christians were reported in Karnataka even before the controversial Bill was passed by the state legislative assembly.
According to the Evangelical Fellowship of India, 37 alleged attacks on the Christian community in the state took place between January and December 2021. The United Christian Forum (UCF), Association for Protection of Civil Rights, and United Against Hate, found that Karnataka is ranked third among the states that have reported the highest number of attacks on Christians.