Chhattisgarh Mulls Stricter Law to Curb Religious Conversion

Raipur: Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma who holds home portfolio on Sunday indicated that his government is working on a stricter law to curb religious conversion in the state and may bring a legislation in this regard in the coming winter session of the Assembly.

Mr. Sharma said the state government is working on the plan to make the existing Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Act more stringent and as many as 52 meetings were held so far for the purpose.

“We are planning to bring legislation in the winter session of the Assembly to give more teeth to the existing law to curb religious conversions in the state”, he said.

The decision to bring the anti-conversion legislation in the winter session of the House comes around a week after the arrest of two Kerala nuns and a tribal at the Durg railway station in the state on charges of forced religious conversion and human trafficking.

The arrest of the two Catholic nuns had triggered outrage at the national level.

The two nuns and the tribal were granted bail by a special NIA (National Investigation Agency) court in Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh on Saturday.

The trio were arrested based on a complaint by a local Bajrang Dal activist alleging that they were taking three tribal girls from Narayanpur district under south Bastar in Chhattisgarh to Agra for religious conversion.

Sources said the proposed legislation may make it mandatory for a person who opts to change his faith to give notice to the local administration in this regard two months in advance.

The proposed law has reportedly provided ten-year-imprisonment for the people indulged in forced religious conversions.