 A crowd of nearly 500 Hindu villagers attacked the pastor of a church, his wife and other church members in Karnataka on 1 May 2005. The attackers sexually molested female church members and burned Bibles and other Christian literature. About 60 people were present at the Sunday service of King Jesus Church, which meets in the home of Pastor Paulraj Raju in Mangalwarapete village near Mysore in Karnataka. The church belongs to Harvest India, a Christian mission. Pastor Charles Isaac, the director of the Evangelical Free Church Urban Movement (EFCUM) of India, said, “On the morning of 1 May, a 500-strong mob of Hindus, who identified themselves as belonging to the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu fundamentalist group, and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP], entered the church and violently attacked Pastor Raju, his wife, and other Christians. When the women tried to stop them from beating up the men, the attackers pulled out their clothes and tried to molest them.” Pastor Issac said Pastor Raju was beaten up until he started bleeding profusely. His wife was also bleeding terribly. And Nagraj, an elder of the church, was also seriously injured in the attack. "We submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Dharam Singh on 3 May, requesting him to protect Christians and take action against the perpetrators," he added. EFCUM India is a member of the Indian Mission Association, an umbrella body of Christian churches and missions in India. Phelomina Peris, former chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for Women, said, "I shall visit Channapatna soon to talk to the women who were molested. Such a shameful incident is against the Indian culture and against international culture." According to Samuel Jacob, the director of Harvest India, "The mob completely damaged all the items in the hall where the worship was going on. Besides they publicly burned Bibles and Christian literature." The 1 May attack echoed an earlier incident on 1 April 2005, when a mob of about 200 people gathered in front of Raju's house and demanded that he close down the church and leave the district. The officers of Channapatna Police Station acted promptly. "We have arrested the five accused named in the First Information Report, and we have provided protection to Pastor Raju and his wife," said Jeyaram, the officer in charge of the investigation. However, Jeyaram rejected the Christians' claim that the attackers were from the local Bajrang Dal and BJP. "All the accused are local residents, and they do not belong to any organisation," he insisted. Another senior police official in the district, who requested anonymity, said, "The attackers seemingly had the support of the local BJP." However, the official alleged that there were only 10 to 15 attackers and that the incident was sparked off by a dispute between Raju and a neighbour named Shekhar. “Shekhar converted to Christianity some time ago, but he recently reconverted to Hinduism, which is perhaps why Pastor Raju and he developed a quarrel," the official claimed. Pastor Raju was beaten by local people in January and later arrested by local police on charges of attempting conversions. On 14 January 2005, Pastor Raju had gone to a nearby village, Rampur, where some villagers caught him and beat him up, saying he had come to convert Hindus. Later, he was taken to the police station, where he was interrogated and finally asked to go back home. On the following day, the police summoned him and arrested him for converting Hindus, a charge levied by a local Hindu, Lokesh. Raju was arrested under Section 153A(1)b of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits any act leading to religious disharmony. "Raju was detained until 3 March, while the police did no investigation at all. He was finally released after his wife filed a petition to quash the case against him and after the Karnataka High Court passed an order for his release."
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