The police have booked suo motu booked case against five members of the Bajrang Dal for allegedly threatening and abusing a tribal youth, who was volunteering as a member of a Pentecostal mission group of tribal children in Kuppadi. The accident occurred during April when Aneesh, a resident of the Kalluvayal tribal village, went to the Cherukad tribal village to take children to a mission group-run study centre. Aneesh has been serving among tribal children in the area for a number of years.
On his way back from the settlement, five Bajrang Dal activists stopped him, Aneesh said to the media. They warned him that they would amputate his legs if he kept taking tribal children to the study centre and teaching them songs, stories, or quiz competitions on the Holy Bible, he added.
The images of the encounter came floating back on social media and went viral following the arrest of two Christian nuns in Durg, Chhattisgarh, on charges of human trafficking and forceful conversion, allegedly at the behest of Bajrang Dal activists.
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Sulthan Bathery Dy SP Abdul Shereef, reportedly, said that the police filed a case on Saturday night and began the inquiry into it based on the visuals. "The probe is underway," he said. Sub-Inspector Sobin informed that some of the accused have already been identified. "We still have to register the victim's statement, and the next procedures would be done subsequently," he said.
Interestingly enough, the Sulthan Bathery police had resolved the problem amicably in April after the local residents alerted them. Neither Aneesh nor the Pentecostal mission group wanted to lodge a complaint then, the police added.
The accused have been charged with Section 192 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for voluntarily causing provocation with intent to cause a riot. They are also charged under Section 351(3), criminal intimidation, and Section 3(5) for threatening bodily harm, damage to property, or other offences.
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