Odisha Shelter Home MD Jailed Because He Is Christian: US Senator

Bhubaneswar: Republican Senator of United States, Charles Ernest Grassley, has stoked a controversy by giving a communal twist to the arrest of Fayaz Rahman, the managing director of Good News India shelter home in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district.

He was arrested on December 2 last year after inmates at the shelter home he ran in the district accused him of mental, physical and sexual abuse.

The US Senator, in a letter to the Government of India, alleged that Raham was imprisoned for his Christian faith. “I have been contacted by several Iowans about the case of Dr Rehman expressing their concern. Since his arrest, Dr Rehman has been denied bail and has had his trial delayed on numerous occasions,” he said.

“I ask that your government look into Dr Fayaz Rahman case that it be given every consideration under applicable Indian law and that it be resolved as speedily as possible,” he wrote.

The Ministry of External Affairs has forwarded to the Odisha government sometime this month, a national daily reported.

Besides sexual harassment allegations, Rahman was accused of engaging in religious conversion through his NGO.

He originally hailed from Kolkata and had later obtained US citizenship. He had himself also converted to Christianity.