Haryana 'missing' Pastor may have died, Police to investigate

Haryana’s top police official will form a special committee to look into the case of a missing Christian pastor after AICC General Secretary Dr. Abraham Matthai’s intervention.

Pastor Jung Bahadur Singh from Dalit hamlet Nai Basti on Thanpur Road in Gohana area of Sonepat disctrit in Haryana is alleged to have died in police custody and a case of missing under policy custody has been filed against the erring police.

The Pastor went missing after Haryana police took him to Mumbai in August 2005 to investigate in a case in which he was alleged to have involved.

Pastor Singh was accused of kidnapping his own younger brother and his uncle’s daughter Manisha Ridlal in March 2004.

However, the Pastor's family maintains that the underage boy and girl eloped, and that he was falsely accused by his aunt Anita Ridlal and other villagers who disliked him due to his conversion to Christianity.

The family also suspects that the police might have killed Jung Bahadur Singh in Mumbai when he was in their 'unofficial custody'.

“A team of Haryana police took Singh (the Pastor) to Mumbai to locate the missing boy and girl two years ago. When they could not find the pair, they returned but without Singh (the Pastor), who has been missing since then,” said Dr. Mathai.

Dr. Mathai and the Pastor's family met Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) R.S. Dalal here on July 20, 2007 to request an inquiry into the case.

Mr. Dalal told media persons that a special committee, headed by Additional General Director of Police John V. George, would be formed to locate the missing Pastor as well as the boy and the girl.

Dr. Mathai, who is also Vice Chairman of the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission, added that the onus of bringing back the Pastor was on the police.

Meanwhile Mrs. Mona Singh, the wife of the Pastor said, “My husband has been facing opposition from his own family members and other villagers after he converted to Christianity from a Dalit family a few years ago. They spread rumours that he was hypnotizing people and kidnapping girls to make them Christians. This led to the false accusation against him after his brother eloped with the girl”.

The Pastor’s wife also filed a petition against the police in the Chandigarh High Court in November 2005 but the police refused to admit to the court that their team had gone to Mumbai with Jung Bahadur Singh (the Pastor). The case remains pending.

“I can name and identify the policemen who came to our house and took my husband Aug 16, 2005. Besides, he called me from Mumbai and told me that he was staying in a hotel with the police and that was the last time I spoke to him,” she said.

Dr. Mathai said that according to the records of Hotel Yatri in Santa Cruz, Mumbai, the Haryana policemen checked in with Jung Bahadur Singh (the Pastor and spent a few days there.

However, Superintendent of Police Navdeep Singh gave a different story saying that Jung Bahadur Singh (the Pastor) was not missing but absconding.

“Singh (Pastor) disappeared a few days before his bail was to be cancelled,' Navdeep Singh told media persons.

The bereaved family hope that the truth will prevail at last.