Claims of attacks on Christians incorrect: Govt in apex court

New Delhi, April 13

Accusing the petitioners of presenting wrong data on alleged attacks on Christian institutions and priests, the Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court they wanted to keep the “pot boiling” to sully India’s image abroad.

“The petitioner claimed that there are some 500 incidents where Christians were attacked. We sent everything to the state governments. We collated all the information we got. First let us see Bihar. The total number of cases, which petitioners gave, is related to internal fights between neighbours where one of the parties happens to be a Christian. The figure given by them was not correct,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud.

The Bench – which also included Justice PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala — was hearing a PIL filed by Peter Machado of the National Solidarity Forum, Vijayesh Lal of Evangelical Fellowship of India and others alleging violence against Christians.

Taking note of the report filed by the Centre, the Bench granted three weeks to the petitioners to respond to it after senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing them, said he received the Centre’s affidavit late last night.

Stating that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has collated the responses from all states, the Solicitor General sought to underline that 38 such incidents were reported from Bihar which pertained to fights between neighbours of whom one happened to be a Christian.

“Wherever there is a grave offence and arrests had to be made… arrests have been made,” Mehta said, asserting the numbers submitted by the petitioners were incorrect. He said 64 arrests were made in Chhattisgarh alone where the state has created a helpline for reporting such incidents.

The petition said 495 attacks took place on Christians and their institutions in Chhattisgarh, but the report said these never happened, Mehta asserted.

The Centre contended 162 of the cases mentioned in the public interest litigation turned out to be fake.