Saying that forceful religious conversions won’t be tolerated in Goa, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who also holds the Home portfolio, lauded the police on Saturday for arresting Dominic D’souza, who has been accused of carrying out such activities. The Goa police had arrested D’souza on Thursday after two separate FIRs were filed against him. He was, however, released on bail by a local court on Friday. “He had previous cases of carrying out religious conversions. He would induce people to change their religion by using magic. There were two or three complaints against him in the past as well but our police department has taken such action against him for the first time. Such cases of religious conversion will never be tolerated in Goa. Those who are carrying out such activities will be prosecuted,” Pramod Sawant said. Sawant added that D’souza would lure poor people into religious conversion using money. “Such conversions will not be allowed. Whenever we receive a complaint, we will immediately stop such activities. We respect all religions and all people – Hindus, Muslims and Christians. There should be no religious conversion by inducement,” the Chief Minister said. Meanwhile, Congress MLA from Siolim, Delilah Lobo, said, “What I am stressing on is that there cannot be forceful conversion. Forceful conversion is wrong. There has to be a law that there cannot be forceful conversion. But out of free will, people can if they want to.” On Thursday, the Goa Police arrested D’souza, a pastor from Siolim in North Goa who allegedly ran a ‘cult-like’ establishment. He had allegedly induced two people into religious conversion and was held under sections of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act. According to the police, complainants Nikhil Shetye and Prakash Khobdekar had alleged that D’souza had induced them into giving up their own religious beliefs and follow his establishment. One complainant alleged that D’souza had converted his wife and when he had resisted to follow suit, he threatened him and asked his wife to leave him and give up the Hindu ideology. The other complainant said that he had approached D’souza because he felt helpless about his ailing father. D’souza had given him an oil which he said was a ‘Holy Oil’ and could cure all diseases. The complainant, however, said that D’souza had also asked him to give up his religion and join his establishment, the police informed. Shobhit Saksena, Superintendent of Police of North Goa, said: “We booked him under Section 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc), 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and Sections 3 and 4 of the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act.” The police further said that the ‘Holy Oil’ that D’souza tried to give to one of the complainants would be sent for forensic analysis. D’souza has eight other criminal offences, including a culpable homicide not amounting to murder case, registered against him that are pending before the court, the police informed.
