MARGAO
A group of Bajrang Dal workers complained to the Margao police over allegations that a prayer service is being conducted in a residential apartment near Cine Lata for the alleged purpose of conversions.
Margao police station in-charge, PI Suraj Samant, however, said that police cannot initiate any action in the matter since no complain has come from any of the people, either induced or coerced to change his or her religion.
After the Bajrang Dal workers went to the Margao police station, policemen were sent to the apartment to verify the claim, only to find the pastor involved in a prayer service. The police returned back on grounds that conducting prayer service is the right of every citizen.
PI Samant later said that the police cannot register FIR over the allegations of religious conversions unless someone who had attended the prayer service, lodges his or her complaint that he/she is being lured or induced to change religion.
The Bajrang Dal workers later told the media outside the Margao police station that the people of Goa, whether they are Hindus, Christians or Muslim, should not fall prey to the pastors from Karwar and Karnataka. “We understand that everyone has got the right to practice to his or her own religion. But, it is not proper for pastors from outside the State to hold prayer services in residential apartments when there are Churches, Temples and Mosques to hold religious services,” they said.
