The Mapusa police on Monday once again arrested Pastor Domnic D’souza on charges of religious conversion and using black magic and disclosed that this is the 8th FIR registered against the preacher. Apparently, this time a complaint has been filed by a man from Tamil Nadu alleging that the pastor asked him to forgo his religion and adopt Christianity.
The pastor is booked under various sections for promoting disharmony or enmity between religious groups, deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion and religious beliefs, and criminal intimidation, besides being charged under the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act 1954.
Interestingly, the police acted so swiftly in registering an FIR, an exercise they otherwise take laboriously long in serious cases like rapes, crimes and even sound violations. Nonetheless, the action appears suspicious because the police have solely relied on the complainant's version without assessing the practicality or evidence of force being used to convert.
The pastor heads the Siolim-based Domnic and Joan Ministry which has been in the eye of the storm on various occasions, the last being December 2022 when the couple were banned from what the collector called “religious conversion”. Subsequently, the High Court had set aside the Collector’s order saying it infringed upon the fundamental rights of Domnic and Joan.
Time and again, the charges against the preacher couple have fallen flat, with the court even pointing out last year that the north collector’s order was not based on the material on record. It was stated that the charges were unfounded, without any basis, and the Collector’s order was bad in law.
One year later, the government machinery appears to have been unleashed on the pastor yet again and an FIR registered without any firm grounds and evidence in hand. Relying exclusively on an individual’s say without any material in hand, despite knowing the background of failed cases, makes this one a very suspicious and motivated case.
DySP Jivha Dalvi narrates that this is the third offence registered against Domnic under similar sections and recounts the 7 FIRs registered earlier. What the DySP does not explain is what makes this case different from the earlier ones where the police had to eat a humble pie. The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti has gone a step ahead and demanded that the Pastor be externed from the State, even before he could be proven guilty.
The very fact that all the previous FIRs have failed to make a case against the preacher only shows that the police are engaging in a witch-hunt directed by political masters with communal agendas. The law permits citizens to profess, practice, preach and propagate one’s religion and there is a very clear line that separates all this from “forceful conversion”. Or is there an attempt to open a debate on forced conversions with Lok Sabha elections around the corner? Let's not forget, that the assembly session is barely a month away.
The Siolim Centre run by Domnic and Joan has been active for over two decades and is facing charges of forced conversion randomly. Another irony is that against that taint, the Centre continued to draw people from all faiths and religions. It appears that authorities are either misreading the situation or are wilfully trying to bring down the congregation in the name of “forced conversions” and “black magic”.
