Police in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have initiated a preli-minary probe into a woman’s allegation that she was paid to convert Christianity.
The move came on an order from the National Commission for Women (NCW), a federal statutory body empowered to protect the rights of women in India.
The NCW order came after a video footage of the woman went viral on Nov. 18 in which she accused a couple Christian men of offering her money to convert.
The woman, believed to be a resident of Damoh district in Madhya Pradesh, said she became Christian after 120,000 rupees was paid to her. She took the money as she was in need of it. The men, according to her dipped her in a water tank and told her that she had become a Christian. But their relationship strained after she stopped going to church. The men, she added, demanded the money back four times. She claimed to have returned 90,000 rupees and promised to pay the rest but they were not ready to listen.
The woman whose identity is not revealed also said in the video footage that at least five others were also converted to Christianity in the same spot, but failed to mention when that had happened.
NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma took cognizance of the video footage and demanded action against the culprits.
Sharma in her official tweet said her commission has taken cognizance of the video footage. The commission, she added, had “written to director general of police, the top police official, Madhya Pradesh to immediately file the First Information Report (FIR) and arrest all the accused if the allegations are found to be true. “NCW has also written to the district collector, top government official Damoh, seeking strict action She also wrote the alleged conversion is “not acceptable at all.”

Thousands of devotees from east-ern Indian state have flocked to the cathedral church of Berhampur diocese in Odisha to celebrate a Marian feast after two years. The Queen of the Mission feast was suspended because of the Covid-19 restrictions. The feast concluded on Nov. 27 after a nine-day novena.

Salesian Father Joseph Chittattukalam died of heart attack November 27 at New Delhi air-port. He was 82.

The canonization process of Venerable Agnelo D’Souza has entered a new phase after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints began to study a miracle attributed to the saintly priest from Goa.

Indian police are deporting three Swedish citizens who violated their visas by trying to convert people to Christianity in India’s remote northeast region, officials said Thursday.

Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, archbishop of Goa and Daman, was re-elected president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), the national body of the country’s Latin rites bishops.
The election took place during the conference’s 33rd plenary assembly held November 11-12 at St. John’s National Institute of Health Sciences in Bengaluru, southern India.

The police in Kerala have registered a case against a Catholic archbishop, his auxiliary and 48 others in connection with violence during a protest against an under construction international seaport in the southern Indian state.
The police and protesters clashed at Vizhinjam police station close to the port protest site on November 27 night that led to injuries to more than 50 people, including 36 police personnel.
The violent mob also ran-sacked the police station and destroyed equipment and police vehicles parked in the compound.
The protesters came to the police station demanding the release five men detained by the police the previous day for violent clash in front of the port site. The protestors had blocked the entry of dumper trucks with construction materials.
Some claiming to be su-pporters of the port project acco-mpanied the trucks and threw stones at the protestors.
The clash continued alle-gedly in connivance with the police. Many had sustained wounds in the violence.
The police later charged Archbishop Thomas J Nettor of Trivandrum Latin archdiocese, his auxiliary Bishop R Kristudas, priests and other protesters for the violence.

Hundreds of temporary teachers are on an indefinite strike demanding regularisation of their service in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.
“We were employed by the government during 2003-2004 but the government sacked us in various false cases,” says a statement from the association of Swechasevi Sikshya sahayak (SSS, Student Assistant volunteers).
The association wants the government to follow a High Court order and re-employ all dismissed teachers and regularize those still working.
The protest that began November 14 continues even after two weeks at the Lower PMG Square in Bhubaneswar, the state the capital.
“The government has divided us into three parts, regular, contractual, and overthrown members. This is how we have been harassed for 19 years,” bemoans Duryajan Sethi, president of the SSS teachers’ federation.
He said the high court on November 9 gave the order in the teachers’ favor. “If the government does not listen, we will intensify the protest and continue to demand to re-employ 243 teachers who were removed unjustly and regularize the 412 teachers who are working on a contractual basis.”

The Catholic Church in Mizoram on November 20 ended the celebration of the 75 years of the presence of priests in the northeastern Indian state with Cardinal Oswald Gracias hailing the Mizo society for setting an example for the rest of the country.
“Your core values of solidarity, concern for the other, community feeling, decision by consensus, kindness, casteless society, and non-discrimination that are the values of Jesus,” the cardinal, who is the archbishop of Bombay and the chief guest, told a public reception. The public meeting concluded the November 18-20 celebrations. It was preceded by a solemn Mass presided over by the cardinal at the Christ the King Cathedral at Kulikawn, Aizawl, the state capital.

A federal agency dealing with economic offenses has attached close to 10 million rupees of movable assets of a Christian medical college in Kerala as part of its probe into a money laundering case.
A November 22 statement from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) says it has provisionally attached movable pro-perties worth 9,525,000 rupees from the bank balance of Dr Somervell Memorial Medical College, Karakonam, in Thiruvananthapuram district, under the Church of South India.
The amount is equivalent to the amount of funds the officials of the medical college, including a doctor and Bishop Dharmaraj Rasalam, had collected from parents promising to give their children seats in MBBS and masters courses in the institution. The agency also said it initiated the money laundering investigation on the basis of multiple first information re-ports registered by Vellarada Police Station and Kerala Police’s Crime Branch.
The probe revealed that the officials had indeed collected the amount from their parents but failed to give admissions to their children even after taking the money.
The accused, ED release points out, had used part of the cash for developing infrastructure in the medical college and the remaining amount was di-verted to the parent Organisation – the South Kerala Diocese of the Church of South India.