Five missionaries from Mizoram arrested last week in Madhya Pradesh allegedly offering money to one labourer to convert to Christianity have been released on bail Tuesday after spending nearly a week in jail. And they have dismissed the allegations as 'false'.
Mizoram Missionary Society workers have been working in Madhya Pradesh for the past 27 years and they claimed they have a good working relationship with all the locals and they have never indulged in such activities, claiming that the missionaries get a monthly salary of only Rs.6,500/- (Rupees six thousand and five hundred only) just to meet their basic needs and that they cannot afford to offer such a large sum of money. The Missionary society also claimed that no such permission nor funds were given to any mission workers in Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere in the country.
Seven mission workers including two women were arrested on 12th September 2014 after they were allegedly offered one lakh rupees to Sunil Prajapati, 42, had filed a complaint to the police and they were held under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act in Badwah, Khargone district. Although Badwah police claimed that Mr. Prajapati was the complainant, others said local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal activisits had taken up the matter with the police.
The women were released the same day, but five men were taken into custody. The mission workers arrested have been identified as Vanlalsawma, 45, K Lalrotluana, 35, Thansangliana, 22, R Laldinfela, 21, and Zonunmawia, 20.
The mission workers said the police arrived where they were planning to hold a prayer meeting in a house of a village and stopped them from doing so even before they entered the house. The police were allegedly called in by Bajrang Dal activists.
Badwah police station in-charge V S Parihar told the Indian Express that the five Mizo missionaries were "only involved in evangelism" and that they had been active in Khandwa for a long time.
According to the society. the missionaries have from time to time involved in "direct evangelism", or going door-to-door talking about Christianity and its "core" work involves in running Ebenezer English Medium School in Burhanpur district. It currently has 262 students and 17 teachers, most of them Korku and Rathia tribals as well as Dalits.
"BJP MPs, MLAs and sarpanches have always been supportive," the society added.
