A Hindu man has been arrested by Tamil Nadu police for lodging a complaint against evangelists. The evangelists, two women, proselytised in a village where only Hindus live and were confronted by the villagers for abusing Hindu deities. Instead of taking action against the proselytisers who acted in such a manner to disturb the communal harmony, local police arrested an RSS functionary who filed a complaint against the evangelists.

A few days ago, Ganesh Babu, an RSS functionary, reported two women for proselytising and disturbing the communal harmony by abusing Hindu deities in a village near Iluppur, Pudukottai. At the same time the evangelists also filed a complaint against Ganesh Babu alleging that he snatched their mobile phones and verbally abused them. Following this ganesh Babu was arrested. RSS, BJP and the villagers have been protesting against this seeking immediate release of Ganesh Babu.

Ganesh Babu has written to the Superintendent of Police, Pudukottai explaining the sequence of events and how he is being targeted unfairly. In the complaint he says, “On 21.01.2022, two unknown women came to his house. They said that they are from a Christian congregation and came to preach about Jesus. They said that Jesus will keep us well if we worship him and distributed the New Testament and some other religious tracts. I told them that I am a Hindu and my Kuladevata is Malayadi Karuppasami and I don’t need those books. When I asked them to leave, they started abusing Hindu deities calling them stones, evil, Satan, etc and that we will gain nothing by worshiping mere stones.”

Babu says that he threatened to call police if they didn’t leave immediately to which they said, “We have been proselytizing in Irundhirapatti, Mettupatti, Kattakkudi, Rapoosal, Iluppur, Melapatti, Navampatti, etc for many years now and no one could implicate us despite villagers’ complaints”. They abused him in obscene language saying, “None of them could pluck even a single hair. Try doing it you bast*rd, son of a b*tch”. They also threatened to target his family with the help of their congregation and left Babu’s house.

A few minutes later, babu heard some noise from outside and went to investigate. He found the two women caught by some youngsters who saw them giving out chocolates, pens, pencils, etc to children and trying to convert the villagers. The youngsters said that the women were abusing and denigrating Hindu deities. Babu informed the police and Rex Stalin, the Sub-Inspector of Iluppur police station came to the spot. As the issue involved women he went back and brought Usha Nandini, the Inspector of the station.

Once she came, villagers handed over the two evangelist women to her and lodged a verbal complaint. Babu went to the police station to inquire about the complaint on 27.01.2022. Inspector Usha Nandini reportedly said that the other party had also filed a complaint against him and that she would take action if Babu gives a written complaint. On 28.01.2022 Babu formally filed a written complaint. Inspector asked him to come again in the evening to get the acknowledgement. But the inspector said that she can give it only after discussing the issue with the Superintendent of Police agreeing to which Babu returned home around 8.30 pm.

To his surprise, the inspector called him at 1am and asked him to come out of his house. Babu saw a team of policemen, the Inspector, Sub-inspector, ASP and others waiting for him. Saying that they have to inquire him, they took him along with them. He was made to remain in the police vehicle till 5.00 in the morning. They asked him to withdraw the complaint and threatened to book him under Women and SC/ST atrocities Act and IPC sections for abduction if he didn’t agree to it.

But Babu stood steadfast and refused to comply. The evangelist women have alleged that Babu stole their vehicle. Refusing this charge, Babu asked the police to properly investigate his and the women’s complaint and take action based on the truth. But he claims that he was again threatened by the police officials to withdraw the case by 11 am next day failing which he will be booked under the atrocity acts. Narrating these details Babu has lodged a complaint with the SP seeking to take action against the two evangelists and the police officials Usha Nandini and Arulmozhi who abused power in support of them and threatened him.

BJP, RSS and the villagers have been protesting in support of Ganesh Babu demanding his release. BJP leader H.Raja who took part in the protest said that the two women admitted that they came to convert people and that there is video evidence to prove the same. Slamming the police for arresting Ganesh Babu based on the evangelists’ fake charges, he accused the DMK government of inciting riots through actions like this. Assuring that it will be taken to court to seek relief for Ganesh Babu, he said that the need for anti-conversion law is inevitable in the state.

In 2018, a gang of 15 evangelists, including some from Kerala, were caught by the villagers of Rapoosal and Melapatti (mentioned by the two evangelist women) while trying to convert the locals and handed over to the same Iluppur police. They were warned to not indulge in conversion activities and let off by the police.