Gujarat: Tension over Church construction in Dangs

On Monday, Puwar had filed a complaint at Subir police station in which he had alleged that former sarpanch of the village, Ganpat Chaudhary, and his aides — Suleman Chaudhary, Vinesh Chaudhary, Suresh Chaudhary, all residents of the same village — had damaged the idols of Nagdev and Vaghdev installed on a roadside. He alleged that after “removing the idols”, Ganpat and his men started building a church at the spot.

Demanding immediate suspension of church construction, Puwar urged the police to take “strict legal actions” against the former sarpanch for “hurting religious feelings of village tribals”.

A police team led by Sub-Inspector H B Vadvaiya and Sub-Divisional Police officer (SDPO) A I Vasava reached the village on Tuesday afternoon and found no damage to the idols. They also found a 20 feet by 30 feet structure being constructed in the vicinity, nearby to house of Ganpat Chaudhary, a Christian. Police then asked officials of Reserve Forest Department to reach the spot. Reserve Forest Department officials on examining the land found that the concrete structure was being built in the reserved forest area, following which they ordered suspension of construction of church.

“We found that no damage was done to the idols that were installed around three years ago. The construction of church was also in progress. We have stopped it as it being constructed on the government forest land. We suspect that there would be some internal dispute between the complainant and accused. We have summoned Ganpat Chaudhary and his aides to police station and will take their statements,” Vadaviya told The Indian Express.

Police also held a meeting of the villagers and urged them to maintain peace.

Gulab Chaudhary, husband of village sarpanch Vanita Chaudhary, said that several Hindu families in the village were against the construction of church. “According to us, the reason behind inviting police and forest officials to stop the construction of church was to take revenge from Christian people in the village as my wife had got six villagers, all Hindus, arrested after a woman was tortured to death by an exorcist last year,” said Gulab Chaudhary, also a Christian.

Kadmal village has a population of around 1,000 people of which around 25 per cent are Christians while remaining tribals. There is no church in the village, and tribals converted to Christianity visit neighbouring villages for prayers. Subir was among the worst affected talukas during the anti-Christian riots of 1998-99 in the Dang district.