PANAJI
The Goa government on Tuesday informed the High Court of Bombay at Goa that no evidence had been found against Pastor Domnic D’Souza of the Siolim-based Five Pillar Church and his wife, Joan, in the 2022 forceful conversion case.
This was stated in the closure report submitted before the Court, which subsequently disposed of the petition seeking to quash the FIR.
The couple had been charged with allegedly practising black magic and illegal religious conversion.
In January 2024, Mapusa police arrested Pastor D’Souza for the offence. It was the eighth FIR registered against the pastor, based on a complaint filed by a man from Tamil Nadu alleging that he had been asked to forgo his old religion and adopt Christianity.
D’Souza’s arrest also came nearly six months after the High Court had quashed and set aside the North Goa Collector’s order of December 12, 2022, banning him and his wife from carrying out religious activities.
