Christian Family Allegedly Assaulted, Forced to Leave ‘Thakur’ Dominated Locality in Lucknow

Lucknow: A Christian family was allegedly beaten up by its neighbours in Lucknow and forced to leave the locality on Monday. The couple, living in Nandi Vihar of Chinat area where the majority of members belong to the 'Thakur' community, said they were being abused since a long time.

According to the police, a quarrel between children of the two families led to a brawl between the male elders of the households, one of which is Christian and the other belongs to the 'Thakur' community of Hindus.

Speaking to the media, victim Promila Paul said, “My husband was beaten by neighbours, we were being abused for many days for being Christians. The neigbours say that they won’t let us live in this area as we are Christians and this is a Thakur dominated locality. We are the only Christian family living here and I fear for my life and security of my husband and kids.”

“We were being threatened continuously and even after complaining to the police no strict action was taken. Father of one of the accused is Ashok Singh who is a Sub Inspector with UP Police and that is why we are being pressurized to resolve the issue. His son has beaten me up and torn my clothes, he has threatened me earlier too. One of the neighbor who tried to help us and intervene was also threatened by these people and said why are you helping Christians even after being a Hindu,” added Promila.

Responding to the reports, Circle Officer Gomti Nagar, Awnishwar Chandra Srivastava said, “The incident took place under Chinat Police station, yesterday a brawl took place between two families and a clash also took place. One of the families is Christian while the other family is from Thakur community. Case was registered from both the sides. In evening the Christian family was again assaulted, main accused Shubham has been arrested and case under section 307 of the IPC has been registered.”

“The issue started between the kids of these families and went on to involve the females and finally the male members. One arrested, Shubham, is son of a policeman whose family also lives in the same vicinity, he was involved in the assault on Christian family and has been arrested,” he added.