Over 50 children were pulled out of a train journey and detained at a police station in Madhya Pradesh
Over 50 children were pulled out of a train journey and detained at a police station in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday. The children, all 12 and below, and dressed in their best outfits, were apparently forced to spend hours at the police station on the suspicion that they were being herded to a religious conversion.
They are now believed to be at a child care centre.
The children, found by the police later to be Christians, were on their way from Gujarat's Meghnagar to Nagpur for a religious function, according to their chaperones. At Ratlam, which is one of the stations where the train stops, a fringe group allegedly barged in and told the police that the children were being taken for a conversion.
On the complaint, the Railway police searched all coaches of the train and had the group of children get off the train and took them for "verification". The children were at the police station from 7 pm to nearly midnight. They were finally handed over the Child Line, a government helpline, which took them to a care centre.
The children were seen in visuals standing around policemen who were asking them their names and addresses. The seven people who were accompanying them were questioned till 2.30 am.
The police admitted that the conversion charge was not established.