Nepal Accuses Couple of ‘Forcibly Converting Minors’

(Compass) – Police have arrested a Christian couple who manage an orphanage in Nepal and charged them with forcibly converting minors. Babu and Sabitri Varghese were arrested on April 27 after a disgruntled former employee stole a photo of an adult baptism and told the police that the couple was baptizing Hindu children. Local newspaper editors printed the photo and then demanded the Vargheses pay them 100,000 rupees ($2,300). When the couple refused, the paper printed calls for them to be jailed for six years. Babu, 36, and Sabitri, 32, are confined at separate police stations, while their children Blesson and Benson are being cared for by orphanage staff. Some observers fear the Nepali government may try to make an example of the couple to discourage Indian Christians from establishing charitable institutions in the country.