Two BJP party workers were booked on Friday for allegedly assaulting a pastor under the Vanasthalipuram police station limits in Hyderabad. The two men identified as Lalith Kumar Reddy and P Srinivas, assaulted pastor G Chandra Mouli, accusing him of performing religious conversations, police said.
Vanasthalipuram police station inspector K Murali Mohan told The New Indian Express that Chandra Mouli, belonging to Jerusalem Church in Hasthinapuram, had visited the family of a church member on Thursday night. Police said that a prayer session was being held at the house, as one of the family members was unwell.
Lalith and Srinivas reached the residence of the family and allegedly began an argument with Mouli. The pastor was also assaulted and suffered minor injuries. The two men accused the pastor of converting the family to Christianity. The family reached out to the police for assistance, who arrived at the location and rescued the pastor.
A police complaint was filed and the two men were taken into custody. On Friday, several persons belonging to the BJP and the RSS protested before the police station over the arrest of the two men. The party workers accused the police of extending support to the pastor.
Police say both men claimed to belong to a group called the ‘Hindu Dharma Protectors’.
Meanwhile, a Hyderabad special court hearing criminal cases pending against public representatives on Friday convicted BJP MLA Raja Singh in a case connected with the assault and threatening the police. A Special Sessions court at the Nampally Court in Hyderabad convicted the Goshamahal legislator and sentenced him to one year of imprisonment apart from a fine of Rs 5000.
The court later granted bail to the MLA in the same case and suspended the sentence for a month, as in convictions for less than three years, the sentences are suspended. The accused MLA is expected to appeal the lower court’s judgement before the High Court.