The Madhya Pradesh police on Tuesday arrested three people for allegedly vandalising and setting on fire two churches in Narmadpuram district, officials familiar with the matter said.
One church was set on fire in the state’s Itarsi town on January 9 and another in Sukhtawa Kesla village on February 12, triggering tension in the areas. The Christian community comprises 0.36% of the population in the two areas.
“The two incidents took place along similar lines and created tension in the region. Three teams were formed to nab the accused,” Narmadapuram superintendent of police (SP) Gurkaran Singh said.
Police said while they were yet to establish the motive behind the vandalisation of the church in Itarsi, the accused – Avneesh Pandey (24), Shiv Kumar (23), and Akash Tiwari (24) – planned to set the Sukhtawa Kesla church afire to “avenge” the burning of pages of epic Ramcharitmanas in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura district.
On January 29, members of the Akhil Bharatiya OBC Mahasabha group allegedly burnt pages of the epic in Vrindavan. The police filed a First Information Report (FIR) against 10 people, including Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who had criticised some excerpts of the epic for allegedly being “discriminatory towards Dalits and women”. The Uttar Pradesh Police later invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against two of the accused.
“During interrogation, the accused claimed that they wanted to do something for their religion. Pandey and Tiwari worked together in Lucknow and they wanted to take revenge for the burning of Ramcharitmanas. Tiwari sent pictures of mazars and churches in Bhopal and Naramdapuram to Pandey and Kumar to set them on fire. He also paid each of them ₹10,000,” the SP said.
