Ranchi principal, staff in soup over ‘conversion’ bid
RANCHI: A Ranchi court on Tuesday ordered the police to file an FIR against the principal and three other staff of Carmel School on the charge of ‘forcible conversion’, following a complaint lodged by a teacher.
The teacher, Nalini Nayak, claimed she was terminated from service after she refused to embrace Christianity.
Nalini alleged that she was being forced to convert to Christianity and when she refused, she was terminated from service by the principal.
“The complaint was filed on Monday in the court of Judicial Magistrate Kashika M Prasad and in the first hearing on Monday; it directed Namkom Police Station to file an FIR against the accused under various sections for pressuring Nalini Nayak to convert. They were booked for criminal conspiracy with common intention and molestation,” Nayak’s advocate Avnish Ranjan Mishra said.
The court also directed the police to file an action taken report in the case, he said, adding, “Nayak was being mentally tortured by the accused and was even manandled by them.”
The complainant said she joined the school on April 6, 2013 and was confirmed in service on April 1, 2016, subject to a precondition that she will embrace Christianity. Soon after being confirmed in the job, the principal, Sister Delia and staffers Sister M Renisha, Sister Teresita Mari and Sister Mari Theresa started piling pressure on her to attend Church service and religious functions on the school campus late at night.
“On September 27, the principal called me to her chamber and threatened that I could be killed if I refused to convert to Christianity. On October 1, I was terminated from service,” the complainant said.
The accused principal and the other staffers were away when this correspondent paid a visit to the school.
None of the other staff members could throw any light on the whereabouts of the accused.