Christian doctor working on COVID program faces criminal charges in India for saying ‘Jesus heals’ By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor
A young Christian doctor in India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh has been suspended from a government program to help combat the deadly second wave of COVID-19 and is facing criminal charges for telling families to pray to Jesus if they get infected with the virus.
Dr. Sandhya Tiwari was suspended from the Madhya Pradesh state’s “Kill Corona” program and is facing criminal charges, possibly under the state’s anti-conversion law, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern reported.
As part of the program, the doctor visited homes in the Bajna area of Ratlam District on May 22 and distributed Christian leaflets along with a recommended diet chart. She also encouraged families to pray to Jesus for healing.
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Activists from India’s chief Hindu nationalist umbrella organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, objected to it, according to OpIndia. One of the men there made a short video of himself interrogating the doctor.
#कील_कोरोना अभियान के दौरान रतलाम के आदिवासी बाहुल्य बाजना क्षेत्र में एक सरकारी महिला स्वास्थ्यकर्मी द्वारा धर्म विशेष का प्रचार किया जा रहा है। @drnarottammisra जी कृपया इसे संज्ञान में लेवें।@ChouhanShivraj@DrMohanYadav51 @RatlamCollector @VishvasSarang @rajneesh4n https://t.co/xRhmdi83cX pic.twitter.com/6smjgv2oLt
— Somesh Paliwal (@SomeshBJP) May 22, 2021
The video was then shared on social media, in which Dr. Tiwari can be seen defending her actions, saying, “What is wrong in telling them that God heals? I did not tell anybody to convert or forced anybody to pray to Jesus, I am being a Christian, I told them that Jesus heals.”
According to local news reports, the doctor was then taken to a police station and was interrogated further.
On Monday, India recorded 152,000 new cases, the lowest daily rise in 50 days, while the number of deaths remained above 3,000, The Times of India reported.
