Former Employee Arrested in Mangaluru Church Attack Case

MANGALURU: One person has been arrested in connection with the stone pelting at the church at the St Joseph Vaz prayer centre at Panir near here on February 24 midnight.

The arrested person Ananda (30) told police he was previously employed in the same church and had left the job demanding a better pay two weeks before the crime, Police Commissioner S Murugan told reporters here.

After getting drunk, Ananda entered the cemetery next to the prayer hall and pelted stones at the statue in an act of revenge. The glass panes of the enclosure of the statue of Mother Mary was damaged in the stone pelting, he said.

Ananda, arrested on Monday, was produced before a local court which remanded him to judicial custody, Murugan said.

Though the stone pelting was a random act, there was widespread protest from the people against the attack which was also given a communal colour, he said.

The incident came close on the heels of vandalisation of churches in New Delhi in recent months, raising concerns among the Christian community whose leaders had demanded concrete action from the Modi government to reassure minorities.

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