A day after an FIR was lodged against unknown men in Ulhasnagar for beating up a pastor, who had come to pray at a personal gathering, police are yet to identify or arrest the culprits. The residents, however, claimed that the accused men were not from their locality.
According to police, pastor Moorthy Selvam had come to the house of a retired hotel employee, Murarilal Valmiki. “Valmiki is a follower of Christianity for the past 15 years and had recently bought a room in a chawl inside Vasar village. He holds prayer meetings every Sunday and invites pastors from other places,” said inspector Mohan Khandare, the investigating officer of the case.
On Sunday, while the meeting was on, a group of seven to eight men allegedly forced themselves inside and beat up Selvam and Valmiki, police said. “We have lodged an FIR on the basis of Valmiki’s complaint,” a senior officer said. He added, “The men were not from the area, and so we are tracing them.”
The local residents, however, claimed that some men had been doing the rounds of the area, asking about prayer meetings and Christian rituals being held in the village for a week. “The chawl has families from all religions. However, there were people asking about Christian families for a week. They even warned us against falling prey to conversion traps,” said Shanti Mahale, a resident of Vasar village.
Requesting anonymity, another resident said: “The men who beat up the pastor were not from our area and we had never seen them before the incident.”
Police said, “This is a rare incident caused by some anti-social elements. We will arrest them soon,” said the senior officer.
