Christian attack -- Abhona sarpanch's family ostracised

Christian attack -- Abhona sarpanch's family ostracised
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

Nashik, June 20: Jagannath Chindhu Pawar, former sarpanch of Abhona village, where a Christian gathering was attacked on May 8, today said that local villagers had ostracised his family and that the private dispensary and nursing home run by his son, Yeshwant, was losing its clientele.

Talking to reporters, Pawar said that some Hindu fundamentalists had launched a smear campaign against his family because he had sold a portion of his land to a Christian institution. He said that none of the members of his family, including his son's Christian wife were involved in any kind of religious propaganda or conversions.

He said that Hindu fundamentalists had misled the villagers into believing that he had given the names of the youths involved in the attack on Christians to the police. He said the police had found the driving licence of Vinit Mahajan on the spot and when he was interrogated he told the names of others. Pawar said the police had found RSS literature on Mahajan's person indicating his affiliation with the organisation.

He further said his opponents had created a misunderstanding that the land sold by him to the Christian organisation originally belonged to a tribal. Pawar pointed out that the 11.15 acre land was bought by him from a non-tribal Ramchandra Narayan Joshi in 1973. He further said he had bought another plot of land of three acres from a non-tribal Vithal Bhat in 1962. The plot was purchased in the name of a tribal Dada Banaji Kuwar. Later, the land was transferred in the name of Pawar in 1967. Kuwar moved the court, which ordered the restoration of the land in 1982-83 in Kuwar's name. Pawar said that instead of the said plot, a three acre plot was given to Kuwar from the other 11.15 acre plot by mutual consent. He said now his opponents were instigating Kuwar against him.

He pointed out that as a result of the smear campaign, the number of patients visiting the dispensary and 25 bedded "Janaseva" nursing home had declined from an average of 50 to below 15 per day. Lazarus Padale, director of the "Chrisitan Love In Action" institution, which runs a girls' hostel at Abhona for the past three years said that last year 60 students had taken admission to the hostel but as the new academic year began last week, their number fell to 24. He pointed out that earlier the hostel was in a rented building in the village but from this year it had been shifted to the institution's own land on the outskirts of the village. He alleged that people were being told by Hindu fundamentalists that the hostel had been closed down forever to deter them from patronising the hostel.