A 13 year old tribal girl and an absconding Christian pastor: The story that no ‘voice of the voiceless’ is talking about

In the last week of November, it was reported that a 49 year old Christian pastor named Jayaraj had abducted a girl from the village of Perungattur in the Javadu hills of Thiruvannamalai. Jayaraj had allegedly been proselytizing in the villages surrounding Javadu hills under the garb of social work for quite some time.

With schools remaining closed due to the Wuhan virus pandemic, Jayaraj offered to take tuitions to the children with the parents agreeing to the arrangement. They had sent their children to the pastor’s home where he ‘taught’ children. At that time, pastor Jayaraj is said to have misbehaved with some of the girl children which came to the knowledge of the parents. Warning him of dire consequences, the parents stopped sending their and shooed him away from the area.

On October 24, a 13-year-old girl from the tribal community went missing. Pastor Jayaraj was also missing. When the girl was nowhere to be anywhere in the village, the girl’s father lodged a complaint with the Jamunamarathur police station that pastor Jayaraj had abducted his child.

2-3 weeks had passed and the since the complaint was lodged and the girl was no where to be found. The pastor reportedly does not use a mobile phone making it difficult to trace his whereabouts. Disappointed with the inefficiency of the local police, the girl’s father petitioned the Thiruvannamalai District Collector and the District Superintendent of Police to help and find his daughter. The police had slapped a kidnapping case on the pastor. The girl’s father has also filed a Haebus Corpus petition at the Madras High Court.

Police investigating the matter found that Pastor Jayaraj, hailing from Polur Sivaraj Nagar in Tiruvannamalai district had been married twice and both his wives had left him. They had gone to Velankanni too in search of him. It was learned that pastor had taken the girl to the house of his sister Parimaladevi (53) living in Thiruvannamalai, and had apparently stayed there for some time. Parimaladevi had hidden this info from cops when during the investigation. Following this, on November 21, the police arrested Parimaladevi under the POCSO Act for allegedly being complicit in the abduction of the girl. She had applied for bail but was denied as the girl was still missing.

Coming to know of this, the pastor had secretly dropped the girl in the hamlet and vanished, so that his sister can get bail. The police who were informed about the girl’s arrival took her for medical examination at the Tiruvannamalai government hospital. When the police asked what had happened, the girl told them that the pastor was taking her to Bengaluru to admit her in a children home run by the government. However, the police suspect that the girl has been brainwashed/threatened into saying this.

As on date, Pastor Jayaraj is still absconding with the police launching a manhunt.

Social activists working in the region say that the laws of the tribals are very different and that they girl could be ostracized by the community members. Activists also note that Christian missionaries frequently come to Jawadhu hills for proselytization purposes and go door to door trying to convert the tribal members to Christianity through enticements. He says that no one from the tribal religion would give up their native religion. “Despite knowing this the missionaries continue to proceed with nefarious activities to somehow convert them. They sexually abuse the innocent tribal children in the name of social work. The government should do something about it and bring them to books.” an activist working in the region says.

(With inputs from Kathir News, News 18 Tamil Nadu, Dinakaran, Dinamalar and Hindu Post)

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