On Thursday, Maharashtra Police registered an FIR against Father James, Vice Principle of De Paul English Medium School in Rahuri, Ahmednagar, for allegedly threatening a 14-year-old Sikh boy and forcing him to convert his religion to Christianity. The case has been registered under sections 295(A), 298, 153A, and 506 of the Indian Penal Code.
According to the FIR obtained by OpIndia, the incident is said to have happened on November 30 this year when the minor victim boy was with his friends on the playing ground of the school. Father James happened to arrive at the spot and saw the victim wearing a turban on his head. Father asked him his name and criticized it saying, “Why are you adding Singh again and again to your name.” On this, the victim stated that he belonged to the Sikh community and that it was mandatory in his religion to add Singh after the names.
The Vice Principal then pointed at his turban and said that wearing a silver religious kada (bangle), and turban (pagdi), all were to show off fashion and had nothing to do with religion. He then asked the boy to cut his hair short, remove the turban and be like the other students in the class. According to the FIR, Father James also asked the boy to convert his religion to Christianity.
14 y/o Sikh student of De Paul English Medium School, Rahuri Factory, Ahmednagar dist coerced to convert to Christianity by cutting hair n throwing Pagdi, when kid refused he was threatened! FIR u/s 295A, 298, 153A, 506 registered against Father James, Father Santo @NagarPolice pic.twitter.com/zywF6DZWm7
— Legal Rights Observatory- LRO (@LegalLro) December 2, 2022
“I told them I would never cut my hair short, remove the pagdi and convert my religion to Christianity. I ran away to my class. However, he followed me and asked me if would I not cut my hair if ever was diagnosed with cancer. On this I told him that my religion was important to me and that I would die of the disease but would never cut my hair,” the victim boy mentioned in the FIR.
The complaint further states that Father James constantly kept on pressuring and threatening the child to either change his religion to Christianity or cut his hair short. The De Paul English Medium School is located in the Rahuri Factory area of the city. The Principal of the school as mentioned in the FIR is Father Santo while Vice Principal is Father James who has been accused in the case.
Notably, the victim boy who studies in 9th standard was also criticized in the past for following the Sikh religion at the school. In August this year, the boy was asked by one of the teachers named Sister Rubi to remove the religious kada (bangle) that he was wearing. The boy said, “At that time she had asked me to get the Principal’s permission to wear the Kada while at the school and also had called my parents. My uncle, Rupinder Singh Kathuria then had attained the permission and had told the school that religion is important to us and that we would follow it everywhere.”
OpIndia tried to contact the school for its comment on the issue but the calls remained unanswered. However, Rupinder Singh Kathuria, the uncle of the boy talked to OpIndia and said that the matter had been resolved at the local level and that the school had issued an apology for their actions.
