Jabalpur: The 142-year-old cathedral, which was vandalised allegedly by right-wing activists last week, has been targeted for the second time since 2008.
Parts of the Cathedral, situated in Cantonment area, were torched on September 12, 2008 but attackers remain unidentified till date. Sameer Kulkarni, the lone man tried for the arson, was later discharged by a court later.
Mumbai ATS, while quizzing Kulkarni, points-man of Abhinav Bharat, a Hindutva outfit, for Madhya Pradesh had learnt he was allegedly behind the arson. Being an accused in the Malegaon bombings, Kulkari was later handed over to Madhya Pradesh Police and brought here to stand trial.
However, he was later discharged in the arson case due to lack of evidence, his lawyer Dipak Panjwani told PTI.
The entire altar of the Cathedral was burnt down. But even after nearly seven years, the guilty has not been punished, a Catholic priest said.
This time around the people the Madhya Pradesh Police has arrested six persons allegedly involved in vandalising a cathedral premises and a Catholic school were arrested in the wee hours of Monday and later let off on a personal bond of Rs 25,000 each.
A delegation of Christian community members led by St Peter and Paul Cathedral’s parish priests Father James D’Souza met Jabalpur range Inspector General of Police D Sriniwas Roa and lodged a protest over the bail granted to the six accused.
The accused were arrested earlier today and have been booked under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 294 (punishment for obscene acts or words in public), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC, besides other relevant sections.
The incident took place on early morning on March 21 when some members of the Christian community were allegedly assaulted and threatened by activists of Bajrang Dal and Dharam Sena who attacked the school and a parsonage alleging that religious conversion had been taking place there.
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