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Two South Korean women who had gone to visit Meerut's Chaudhary Charan Singh (CCS) University were harassed on Saturday, 21 January, by a group of people who alleged that they were Christian missionaries aiming to convert people, the police said.
The incident: In a 33-second video, the women are seen being questioned by a crowd of unidentified people, amid chants of "Jai Shree Ram." One of the people asks them, "Who is with you? What is the purpose of your visit?"
He then alleges that they are Christian missionaries and says, "There is only one God – Ram, others do not exist."
One of the women is seen trying to speak in Hindi to get the mob to calm down, but is unable to pacify them.
"These are Christian missionaries who want to come here. This is wrong," a protester is heard saying in the video.
The Embassy of South Korea in New Delhi told The Quint that they had received news of the incident on Sunday and were in contact with the police. However, they refused to issue an official statement.
What did the police say? The Meerut Police confirmed that the incident took place on Saturday, and that a police team which was present nearby got the matter under control after being informed about it.
"We escorted both the South Korean women out of the university and back to their hotels," Meerut CO (Civil lines) Arvind Kumar told The Quint.
He also said that the two women have left Meerut and will return to South Korea on Monday.
A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against the mob, Kumar said, adding that the police are currently trying to identify the accused persons.
"We have gotten in touch with the university's chief proctor, but he is currently out of town and so we have not been able to identify the accused yet," he said.
Conversion allegations: On the allegation of religious conversion, the police said that the two women, who are students from a South Korean university, had come to Meerut for tourism and did not have any aim to convert people. Further, no material pertaining to conversion was found on them.
The Meerut Police had earlier put out a tweet, saying, "Some foreign girls had come to visit the (CCS) university. Some youths deliberately asked them about their religion and made a video. Some people are wrongly spreading this video (saying) that they are propagating religion. This is totally wrong."
Has the university reacted? The university's registrar Dhirendra Kumar told The Indian Express that it was not yet clear whether the hecklers were students of the institution or outsiders.
He also said that the university will act if any student or union lodges a complaint with regard to the incident.
(With inputs from The Indian Express.)
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