Centre brought data from 8 states before the SC to claim that plea on increasing attacks on Christians an “attempt to paint false picture”,
The Centre has brought on record data from eight states before the Supreme Court to claim that plea alleging increasing attacks on Christians across the country is an “attempt by the petitioners to paint a false picture”, and petitions like these are “projected outside the country to say “look Christians are in danger”, which is a concern for the government.
In a compliance affidavit, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said: “It is submitted that perusal of the verification reports furnished reveals that state governments have stated that majority of the incidents (263 out of 495) from the list furnished by the counsel for the petitioner(s) have not been reported to them”.
The affidavit said out of 232 incidents, which have been reported to the concerned state Governments, the matter(s) were resolved in 73 incidents amicably with mutual agreement between both the parties. “These 73 incidents were related to land disputes, family disputes, superstitious practices, violation of Covid-19 guidelines and other trivial issues. FIR/non-FIR complaints were registered in the remaining 155 cases,” it added.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, and advocate Sumeer Sodhi, representing the Chhattisgarh government, opposed arguments made by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioners, before a bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.
Mehta said, “They want to keep the pot boiling that is very apparent…in fact there are 64 arrests in Chhattisgarh…state governments are saying that most of the incidents never happened…and this would be projected outside the country…look Christians are in danger…that is our concern.” Gonsalves said it is not a question of arrests, “you attack and then you put us behind…once see the data lordships”.
According to the Centre, in Bihar the petitioners claimed 38 incidents (attack on Christians), however state government reported 15 incidents, out of which five matters were resolved amicably between both the parties, 12 accused were arrested and charge sheets have been filed in two cases.
In Chhattisgarh, 119 incidents were claimed by the petitioners, however the state government reported 36 incidents and in 12 incidents matters were related to family disputes, which was resolved amicably, and 64 accused were arrested and charge sheets have been filed in 13 cases.
