AHMEDABAD (Gujarat): In a sordid tale of criminal-religious nature, a pastor of Khlesia Church in the Rabari Colony area of Ahmedabad metropolitan area sexually abused a minor girl, made her nude videos, and threatened her to convert her religion to Christianity. Gulabchand, the accused priest sent video clips to victim girl’s relatives after which this crime came to light.

The 16-year old girl, a student of class 11th in a local school, has filed a complaint in city’s Ramol police station against a pastor of Ecclesia Church which is located in Rabari Colony area.

According to the police, a first information report (FIR) was filed on the night of August 31, under Indian Penal Code sections 354D for stalking, 354C for the dissemination of victim’s pictures to a third person without her consent and 506 for criminal intimidation along with sections of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

“The matter came to light when the parents of the minor approached the police station and registered a complaint. The pastor will be interrogated about all of these allegations. We can’t reveal too much about this case since it is a religious matter,” local police officials told upon repeated queries.

According to the complaint, the accused pastor, who was in possession of naked pictures of the victim girl had forced her to embrace Christian faith.

The girl stated in her complaint:

“On December 25 last year, I visited a church… where the pastor asked me to call my parents to church next time. Later, the pastor kept on calling my parents and one day, they organised a religious ceremony at our house.

Later, on the pretext of speaking to my father, the pastor used to call on his number and talk to me.

He used to say that he loves me and demanded my private pictures. He also started doing video calls to my phone and made obscene demands. He threatened me that if I revealed it to my father then he will circulate my private pictures. Almost a fortnight ago, one of my relatives contacted my father and said that he received an obscene picture of mine. Later my father received another obscene picture of mine on his phone and asked me about it. It was then that I told him about the pastor.”

The Case:

The victim minor girl had visited the said church on December 25, 2019, with a lady in the neighbourhood. The church pastor Gulabchand acted friendly with her and asked her to bring her parents too to the church.

The girl, however, did not mention this to her parents. A few days later, Gulabchand’s relative called the victim girl’s father over the phone and invited him to the said church. The next month, the victim girl visited the said church with her parents.

The accused pastor took the opportunity to get close to the family and later visited the minor girl’s place with his relatives and aides to do Christian bhajans.

After this, pastor Gulabchand would often call up the minor girl. He even sent a photograph sending kiss and saying, “I love you“.

Quite disturbingly, Gulabchand would also stalk the minor girl and ask her to undress over video calls.

The Church Pastor would issue death and defamation threats to the minor girl if she revealed anything to her father — and coerce her to adopt Christianity.

It could well be the Christian version of ‘Love Jihad‘ wherein the entire sequence of events could well be a well-calibrated plan of manipulating the minor by both brainwashing her and threatening her via sexual abuse.