It has come to light that Hosadurga taluk administration in Chitradurga district had conducted a survey on the religious conversions in two villages of the taluk a few weeks ago and conveyed the findings to the higher-ups in the government.
The officers, led by tahsildar Y. Thippeswamy, found that 42 families had converted to Christianity. Hosadurga MLA Gulihatti Shekhar of the BJP had raised the issue in the Legislature session, alleging that over 20,000 people of his constituency had been converted to Christianity and his mother was one among them. Recently, Mr. Shekhar claimed that his mother and four families, who had converted to Christianity, had returned to Hinduism.
When The Hindu contacted Mr. Thippeswamy, on Monday, he said he along with the Circle Inspector and his staff visited the two villages, one in Srirampura Hobli and another in Madadakere Hobli to inquire about religious conversions. “In one place, we noticed around 30 families converted to Christianity and in another, about 12 families had converted. Upon enquiry, they said they accepted the religion voluntarily for mental peace and happiness. They said they were neither forced nor lured,” he said. “Whatever we gathered from the local people was conveyed to senior officers orally,” the officer added.
Earlier this year, a similar exercise was conducted by the police separately. Then too the police officer had denied the allegations of forced conversion.
