Five reconverted in Orissa

CUTTACK, JUNE 18: As many as five persons from one tribal family were reconverted from Christianity to Hinduism at Keuti Berini village un...

CUTTACK, JUNE 18: As many as five persons from one tribal family were reconverted from Christianity to Hinduism at Keuti Berini village under Mangarajpur gram panchayat in Cuttack district on Saturday.

The reconversion rites were performed by the working president of the Banabasi Kalyan Ashram, Orissa, Swami Pranrupananda at the ashram premises at Keuti Berini.

One Dinabandhu Chattar of Dandapania village under Gurudijhatia police limits was reconverted along with his wife, two sons and daughter. Chattar said that he had been converted to Christianity about three years back.

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He said that about 22 families out of hundred in his village have been converted to Christianity within the last seven years. Chattar is the first person in the village to have opted for reconversion.

While describing the incident as a "homecoming" by the tribals, the vice president of the Cuttack unit of Banabasi Kalyan Ashram Prasant Ballav Ray said that more families in the village have elicited interest in "returning back to the Hindu fold". Ray said filing of the affidevits as required under the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act was under process and would be filed soon. More reconversions would be carried out in a later date, he added.

Meanwhile, the district administration has expressed ignorance about the reconversions. The additional district magistrate Parshuram Parida, who is in charge in district collector P K Jena’s absence, said that the administration had received no information nor any affidavit about the reconversion. He said that he would examine the matter and action would be initiated if found violating the Orissa Freedom of Religions Act.

Contacted, the district SP Satyajit Mohanty also said that the police had not been intimated about the reconversions.