A state of shock and anger prevails among the residents of Chittu Tola village under Thanwe police station limits of Gopalganj Bihar after a police team raided and detained one D D Masih alias Dharmadas Ram, a resident of Siwan for allegedly running a conversion programme on April 9.
According to the information received, the conversion programme was organised in a rented premise where around 250-300 people from the nearby villages were called in for the so-called prayer ceremony on April 9; it’s been learnt that the organisers had also arranged food and snacks for the guests who were brought up there to convert to Christianity.
As per the reports, D D Masih, the mastermind of the conversion apparatus, was residing in the area for three years; he also runs a private clinic near the bus stand beside organising conversion programs in the rented accommodation near the Chittu Tola Jungles.
It’s been reported that Masih, on the pretext of treating people, was deeply involved in the misdeed of conversion, and a weekly prayer gathering has been regularly organised at his clinic and in the nearby areas as well, where he on behest of providing quality education and treatment was luring the local Hindus to convert to Christianity.
Speaking with the Organiser, one of the locals who reside around two and a half kilometres from his clinic said, “There were reports of him being indulged in the misdeed of Conversion, he was running a clinic there where he used to distribute booklets related to Christianity and on Sunday he along with his companions were organising ‘Prarthana Sabha’ where they used to instigate people not to go to the temples but to worship Jesus to get rid of all their issues.”
“On April 9, he along with his associates had called in a large number of locals and was possibly invoking them to leave their religion and embrace Christianity, it was only when the villagers got to know about the gathering then they informed the police who later detained him along with his two associates and dispersed the crowd”, he added.
It’s been reported that the pastor Masih who has reportedly converted a significant number of locals from the nearby Barari and pithori villages, was later released by the police after a brief interrogation.
It is to be noted that this is not the first time that a conversion racket has surfaced in the region. In September 2021, around 700 people (most of them from the Kushwaha community) were illegally converted to Christianity in Sumaha village of Ishwapur block of neighbouring Saran district. Only after a huge outrage from the nearby locals and Hindu outfits was the converted Hindus brought back to the Sanatan fold.
