With Agra police increasing the cash reward on Nand Kishore Balmiki, the main accused in the alleged forced conversion of about 100 people in Agra recently, from Rs 5000 to Rs 12000, the self-proclaimed Hindu leader managed to dodge the `Alert’ cops when he walked freely inside the Hari Parbat police station and surrendered before the police on Tuesday morning.
Reports said that Balmiki, who was absconding since the police registered a case against him on last Tuesday, finally decided to appear and face the legal action. The cops later produced him before the magistrate. They might also seek his police custody remand to grill him in this regard. It may be mentioned that a FIR had been registered on December 9 against Dharma Jagran Manch and Nand Kishore Balmiki, the outfit’s UP convener, in connection with the “forced conversion” of about 100 people, mostly Muslim slum dwellers, through a ritual carried out by the Hindu organisation on December 8 last. Police had registered cases under Section 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups) and Section 415 (using fraudulent means) of the IPC on a complaint by a person identified as Ismail, who was among those who was reconverted. Police had conducted raids at various areas to arrest Balmiki and announced a cash reward of Rs 12,000 on any information about his whereabouts.
On last Sunday, Balmiki had managed to give police the slip but his son Rahul and relative Krishna Kumar were arrested from a guest house in Etah district.The issue had set off a chorus of criticism against the government by the opposition inside and outside Parliament. On Monday, members of Balmiki community had staged a demonstration outside the Divisional Commissioner’s office in Agra in support of the Dharma Jagran Manch’s UP convener.
Interestingly, while leaders of Bharatiya Janta Party gone defensive, the issue of conversion in the State also took a new twist on last Thursday after disclosure of a letter of the Dharam Jagran Samiti, organising the conversion programme. The letter revealed that the Organisation has to spend huge money for these programmes and sought donation in a big way from the workers. The letter of area chief Rajeshwar Singh, of the Dharam Jagran Manch, an offshoot of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS),made public on last Thursday, revealed that for converting a Muslim to Hindu, it takes Rs five lakh each while for a Christian converting to Hindu Rs two lakh is spent.
Singh in his Dharam Jagran Samiti, Paschim Uttar Pradesh area, undated letter head say that during 2014, the organisation held the ‘Ghar Vapsi’ programme in 20 districts of the area for re-conversion of Muslim and Christian to Hindu, in which 40,000 people attended. “We have a target to re-convert one lakh people from Muslim and Christians to Hindu,’ he announced in his letter, adding that there is heavy fund involved in the conversion as converting a Christian takes Rs two lakh expenditure and for a Muslim it was around Rs five lakh. Singh also demanded from the workers to donate generously for the ‘Ghar Vapsi programme’ as heavy fund is required to hold such programmes.
Meanwhile Congress accused Governor Ram Naik of making controversial Statements which is against the dignity of the position he is holding, and said that he should be immediately sacked by the President.
“A Governor is not supposed to support any political ideology and issue statements in their favour. However, UP Governor has recently given a number of statements which showed that his role is not unbiased on controversial issues like building Ram Tempe, conversion etc,” asserted chairman of the UP Congress Media Cell, Satyadeo Tripathi, while calling to sack the governor for his conduct. “We have demanded from the President to immediately remove Naik from his post. We have made his demand through media and will also write in this regard to President”, he added.